From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License

=====

Marta Weiss (Barbara Drapinska), a Polish Jew, arrives by cattle car to the Auschwitz concentration camp. While there, she catches the attention of the guards as she is multilingual and is put to work as a translator. When she inquires about the factory at the camp, a fellow inmate informs her that it is a crematorium and that the rest of her family likely has been murdered. The character Marta Weiss is based on the true life of Mala Zimetbaum. In the barracks, many of the women are dying and ill. Eugenia, a prisoner and doctor, tries her best to administer to them but is unable to do much as supplies are limited. The women learn that an international commission is coming to the camp to observe the conditions of the prisoners. Eugenia learns a few key phrases in German and is able to tell the observers that everything they see is a lie and people are dying. Unfortunately the commanders tell the observers that Eugenia is mentally ill. Later they torture her to find out who taught her the German phrases but Eugenia refuses to tell them and is murdered. Eugenia is replaced by Lalunia, a Polish woman who claims to have been rounded up by mistake and who says she is a doctor though she is actually only a pharmacist's wife. However rather than administer medicine to the women of the camp she distributes them among the Kapos in exchange for luxuries like clothes and perfume. The nurses' aide searches her room and confiscates the remaining medicine. Lalunia later turns the aide in and has her killed after discovering messages she had written that the Russians were advancing. Meanwhile, Marta is able to temporarily escape in order to smuggle information about the camps to a resistance broadcaster. When she is returned to the camp, she is tortured and then sentenced to death by hanging. A prisoner frees her wrists and hands her a knife before she is to die, and she tells the camp that the Russians are coming and slashes the face of the Nazi commander who tortured her. Before the guards can retaliate, planes are heard overhead, and Marta realizes that the Russians have come to liberate them. 

=====

Chapter 9, of the Jungle, novel by Upton Sinclair, describing corruption in the Gilded Age The main character in the book, Jurgis Rudkus, a Lithuanian immigrant, tries to make ends meet in Chicago. The book begins with his wife Ona and his wedding feast. He and his family live near the stockyards and meatpacking district where many immigrants, who do not know much English, work. He takes a job at Brown's slaughterhouse. Jurgis had thought the US would offer more freedom, but he finds working-conditions harsh. He and his young wife struggle to survive as they fall deeply into debt and become prey to con men. Hoping to buy a house, they exhaust their savings on the down payment for a substandard slum house, which they cannot afford. The family is eventually evicted after their money is taken. Jurgis had expected to support his wife and other relatives, but eventually all—the women, children, and his sick father—seek work to survive. As the novel progresses, the jobs and means the family use to stay alive slowly lead to their physical and moral decay. Accidents at work and other events lead the family closer to catastrophe. Jurgis' father dies as a direct result of the unsafe work-conditions in the meatpacking plant. One of the children, Kristoforas, dies from food poisoning. Jonas—the other remaining adult male aside from Jurgis—disappears and is never heard from again. Then an injury results in Jurgis being fired from the meatpacking plant; he later takes a job at Durham's fertilizer plant. The family's breakdown progresses as Jurgis discovers an arrangement in which Ona has traded regular sexual favors to Phil Connor, Jurgis' boss, in exchange for being allowed to keep her job. In revenge, Jurgis attacks Connor, resulting in his arrest and imprisonment. After being released from jail, Jurgis finds that his family has been evicted from their house. He finds them staying in a boarding house, where Ona is in labor with her second child. She dies in childbirth at age 18 from blood loss; the infant also dies - Jurgis had lacked the money for a doctor. Soon after, his first child drowns in a muddy street. Jurgis leaves the city and takes up drinking. His brief sojourn as a hobo in the rural United States shows him that no real escape is available—farmers turn their workers away when the harvest is finished. Jurgis returns to Chicago, holds down a succession of laboring jobs and works as a con man. He drifts without direction. He finds out that Marija, Ona's cousin, had become a prostitute to support the family and is now addicted to morphine; Stanislovas, the oldest of the children at the beginning of the novel, had died after getting locked in at work and being eaten alive by rats. One night Jurgis wanders into a lecture being given by a socialist orator, where he finds community and purpose. After a fellow socialist employs him, Jurgis locates his wife's family and resumes his financial support of them. The book ends with another socialist rally, which follows some political victories. Panorama of the beef industry in 1900 by a Chicago-based photographer 

=====

A young George Jung and his parents Fred and Ermine live in Weymouth, Massachusetts. When George is ten years old, Fred files for bankruptcy, but tries to make George realize that money is not important. As an adult, George moves to Los Angeles with his friend "Tuna"; they meet Barbara, an airline stewardess, who introduces them to Derek Foreal, a marijuana dealer. With Derek's help, George and Tuna make a lot of money. Kevin Dulli, a visiting college student from Boston, tells them of the demand for marijuana back home. They start selling marijuana there, buying marijuana directly from Mexico with the help of Santiago Sanchez, a Mexican drug lord. Two years later, George is caught in Chicago trying to import of marijuana and is sentenced to two years. After unsuccessfully trying to plead his innocence, George skips bail to take care of Barbara, who dies from cancer. Her death marks the disbanding of the group of friends; even Tuna flees their vacation home in Mexico and is never seen again. While hiding from the authorities, George visits his parents. George's mother calls the police, who arrest him. He is sentenced to 26 months in a federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut. His cellmate Diego Delgado has contacts in the Medellin cartel and convinces George to help him go into the cocaine business. Upon his release from prison, George violates his parole conditions and heads down to Cartagena, Colombia to meet with Diego. They meet with cartel officer Cesar Rosa to negotiate the terms for smuggling to establish "good faith". As the smuggling operation grows, Diego is arrested, leaving George to find a way to sell . George reconnects with Derek in California, and the two sell all the cocaine. George then goes to Medellín, Colombia and meets Pablo Escobar, who agrees to go into business with them. With the help of Derek, the pair become Escobar's top U.S. importer. At Diego's wedding, George meets Cesar's fiancée Mirtha and later marries her. However, Diego resents George for keeping Derek's identity secret and pressures George to reveal his connection. George eventually discovers that Diego has betrayed him by cutting him out of the connection with Derek. Inspired by the birth of his daughter and a drug-related heart attack, George severs his relationship with the cartel. All goes well with George's newfound civilian life for five years, until Mirtha organizes a 38th birthday party for him. Many of his former drug associates attend, including Derek, who reveals that Diego eventually cut him out as well. The FBI and DEA raid the party and arrest George. He becomes a fugitive, and his bank account—heretofore under Manuel Noriega's protection in Panama—is seized by Noriega. One night, he and Mirtha get into a fight while driving. They are pulled over by police and Mirtha tells them George is a fugitive and has stashed a kilogram of cocaine in his trunk. He is sent to jail for three years, Mirtha divorces him, and takes custody of their nine-year-old daughter, Kristina Sunshine Jung. Upon his release, George struggles to maintain his relationship with his daughter. He promises Kristina a vacation in California and seeks one last deal to garner enough money for the trip. George completes a deal with former accomplices but learns too late that the deal had been set up by the FBI and DEA, with Dulli and Derek having leaked the nature and location of the action in exchange for pardons for their involvement in his prior action. George is sentenced to 60 years at Otisville Correctional Facility in upstate New York. He explains in the end that neither the sentence nor the betrayal bothered him, but that he can never forgive himself for having to break a promise to his daughter. While in prison, George requests a furlough to see his dying father, Fred. His mother denies the request. George records a final message to Fred, recounting his memories of working with his father, his run-ins with the law, and finally, too late, his understanding of what Fred meant when he said that money is not "real". An old man in prison, George imagines that his daughter finally comes to visit him. She slowly fades away as a guard calls for George. The film concludes with notes indicating that Jung will not be eligible for parole until 2015, and that his daughter has yet to visit him. 

=====

On Christmas Eve 1988, NYPD Detective John McClane arrives in Los Angeles intending to reconcile with his estranged wife, Holly. He is driven to Nakatomi Plaza by his driver, Argyle, to attend a Christmas party held by Holly's employer, the Nakatomi Corporation; Argyle waits for McClane in the garage. While McClane changes clothes, the tower is seized by a German radical, Hans Gruber and his heavily armed team: Karl and his brother Tony, Franco, Theo, Alexander, Marco, Kristoff, Eddie, Uli, Heinrich, Fritz, and James. Those inside the tower are taken hostage, except for McClane, who slips away. Gruber interrogates Nakatomi executive Joseph Takagi for the building's vault code. Gruber reveals that he plans to steal $640million (equivalent to $ in ) in untraceable bearer bonds. The gang is pretending to be terrorists to conceal the theft. Takagi refuses to cooperate and is executed; Theo is tasked with breaking into the vault. McClane, who is secretly watching events, triggers a fire alarm to alert authorities. Tony is sent after McClane, who kills him, obtaining his weapon and radio, which he uses to contact the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). Sergeant Al Powell is sent to investigate. McClane kills Marco and Heinrich, recovering the latter's bag of C-4 explosives and detonators. Seeing nothing amiss, Powell prepares to leave when McClane drops Marco's body onto his patrol car. Powell summons the LAPD; a SWAT team lays siege to the building but are neutralized by gunfire on the ground floor, and anti-tank missiles fired by James and Alexander. McClane throws some C-4 down an elevator shaft. The explosion kills the pair, ending the assault. Holly's co- worker Harry Ellis attempts to mediate between Gruber and McClane for the latter's surrender. McClane refuses, and Ellis is killed. Gruber checks the explosives installed on the roof and encounters McClane. He portrays himself as an escaped hostage. McClane offers him a gun, and Gruber attempts to shoot him; the gun is empty. Karl, Franco, and Fritz arrive; McClane kills Fritz and Franco, but is badly injured by shattered glass from shot-out office windows, and is forced to flee, abandoning the detonators. Outside, FBI agents commandeer the situation, ordering the power shut off. As Gruber had anticipated, the power cut disables the final vault lock; his team collects the bonds. Gruber demands a helicopter be flown to the roof. The FBI agrees, intending to send gunship helicopters to eliminate the group, regardless of collateral damage to the hostages. A despondent McClane contacts Powell. He tells McClane that he accidentally shot a child once while on patrol and has not used his gun since. McClane realizes Gruber intends to detonate the rooftop—killing the hostages and the FBI agents—to fake his team's deaths. Karl confronts McClane and they fight. Gruber sees a news report by reporter Richard Thornburg on McClane's children and deduces that he is Holly's husband. The hostages are escorted to the roof; Gruber keeps Holly with him. During the long fight, McClane seemingly kills Karl. He kills Uli and rescues the hostages just before Gruber detonates the roof, destroying the FBI helicopters. Meanwhile, Theo retrieves their getaway vehicle from the parking garage but is neutralized by Argyle, who has been following the events on his radio. A weary and battered McClane finds Holly with Gruber and his remaining men, Eddie and Kristoff. After knocking Kristoff unconscious, McClane confronts Gruber and is ordered to surrender his submachine gun. McClane does this to spare Holly but distracts Gruber and Eddie by laughing and grabs a concealed pistol taped to his back that contains two bullets. McClane wounds Gruber and kills Eddie; Gruber crashes through a window but grabs onto Holly's wrist. He makes a last-ditch attempt to kill the pair, but McClane unclasps Holly's wristwatch and Gruber falls to his death on the street below. Outside, McClane and Holly meet Powell. Karl emerges and attempts to shoot McClane but is killed by Powell. Thornburg arrives and tries to interview McClane, but Holly punches him. Argyle crashes through the parking garage door in the limo and leaves the area with McClane and Holly. 

=====

The film begins with a silent film sequence, with subtitles, during which Squire Allworthy returns to his estate after a lengthy stay in London and discovers a baby in his bed. Thinking that one of his maids, Jenny Jones, and his barber, Mr. Partridge, conceived the illegitimate baby out of lust, the squire banishes them. He names the infant Tom Jones and chooses to raise him as if he were his own son; Tom grows up loving him like a father. Tom becomes a lively young man whose good looks and kind heart make him very popular with girls and women. He truly loves only the gentle Sophie Western (Sophia "Sophy" in the novel), daughter of a neighbor, who returns his passion. Tom is stigmatized as a "bastard" and cannot wed a young lady of her class. Sophie, too, must hide her feelings while her aunt and her father, Squire Western, try to coerce her to marry someone they think more suitable, the nephew of Squire Allworthy. This young man is Mr. Blifil, the son of Squire Allworthy's widowed sister Bridget. Although of legitimate birth and appropriate class, he is an ill-natured prig with plenty of hypocritical 'virtue.' When Bridget dies unexpectedly, Blifil intercepts a letter, which his mother intended for his uncle's eyes only. The letter's contents are not revealed until late in the film. But after his mother's funeral, Blifil and his two tutors, Mr. Thwackum and Mr. Square (who also tutored Tom), join forces to convince the squire that Tom is a villain. Allworthy gives Tom a small cash legacy and sorrowfully sends him out into the world to seek his fortune. In his odyssey on the roads, Tom is knocked unconscious while defending the good name of his beloved Sophie and robbed of his small legacy. He also flees from a jealous Irishman who falsely accuses him of having an affair with his wife, Sophie's cousin; engages in deadly sword fights, saves a Mrs. Waters from an evil British Redcoat officer, and later beds her. Before that occurs, Tom and Mrs. Waters have a celebrated scene in which they wordlessly and voraciously consume an enormous meal while gazing lustfully at each other. Later Tom learns that Mrs. Waters is allegedly his mother, and meets Partridge, his alleged biological father. Meanwhile, Sophie runs away from home soon after Tom is banished, in order to escape the attentions of the loathed Blifil. After narrowly missing each other at the Upton Inn, Tom and Sophie arrive separately in London. There, Tom attracts the attention of Lady Bellaston, a noblewoman over 40 years of age who is attracted to the "pretty boy". She is rich, beautiful, and completely amoral. She invites Tom to a masked ball at Vauxhall Gardens and seduces him. Tom goes to her bed willingly and is generously rewarded for his services with a suit of fine clothes. Tom's womanising eventually catches up with him and he ends in a duel with a jealous husband. The sword fight ends in the death of the husband and the crowd thinks he was robbing the man. Tom ends up at Tyburn Gaol, sentenced to hang for robbery and murder. A pardon arrives at the jail too late. Allworthy learns the contents of the mysterious letter: Tom is not Jenny Jones's child, but his sister Bridget's illegitimate son and thus Allworthy's nephew. Since Blifil knew this, concealed it, and tried to destroy his half-brother, Allworthy disinherits him. Allworthy uses this knowledge to get Tom a pardon, but Tom has been conveyed to the gallows; the noose is around his neck. Squire Western, who has been apprised of his true status, cuts him down and takes him to Sophie. Tom has permission to court Sophie, and all ends well with Tom embracing Sophie with both Squire Western's and his uncle's blessings. Tom "lives to love another day". 

=====

Homer Smith (Sidney Poitier) is an itinerant jack-of-all- trades who stops at a farm in the Arizona desert to obtain some water for his car. There he sees several women working on a fence, very ineptly. The women, who speak very little English, introduce themselves as German, Austrian and Hungarian nuns. The mother superior, the leader of the nuns, persuades him to do a small roofing repair. He stays overnight, assuming that he will be paid in the morning. Next day, Smith tries to persuade the mother superior to pay him by quoting Luke 10:7, "The laborer is worthy of his hire." Mother Maria Marthe (Lilia Skala, called "Mother Maria") responds by asking him to read another Bible verse from the Sermon on the Mount: "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” Mother Maria likes things done her way. The nuns have essentially no money and subsist by living off the land, on what vegetables the arid climate provides, and some milk and eggs. Even after being stonewalled when asking for payment, Smith, persuaded to stay for a meal, agrees, against his better judgment, to stay another day to help them with other small jobs, always with the faint hope that Mother Maria will pay him for his work. As Smith's skills and strengths become apparent to the nuns, they come to believe that he has been sent by God to fulfill their dream of building a chapel for the townsfolk—who are Mexican and impoverished—as the nearest church is miles away. When Sunday comes, Mother Maria informs Smith that he will drive the sisters to Mass in his station wagon. (The nuns have no vehicle and thus ordinarily would walk the long distance to church.) Smith is invited to attend the Catholic Mass, celebrated by a roving priest not in a church but outdoors, but he declines because he is a Baptist. Instead, he takes the opportunity to get a proper breakfast from the trading post next door. In talking to the proprietor, Juan (Stanley Adams), Smith learns about the hardships that the nuns, led by the unyielding Mother Maria, overcame to emigrate from Eastern Europe—over the Berlin Wall—only to scratch out a meager living on the farm that was willed to their order. Juan humorously tells Homer that he considers prayer and belief in religion a form of "insurance", and suggests that that is why Homer is helping the nuns without payment. Though he has come to realize how unlikely it is that he will be paid, and partly out of respect for all the women have overcome, Smith stays longer and finds himself driven to work at least on clearing the construction site for the chapel. He rationalizes that it would be too hard for the sisters to move the heavy beams. After losing another duel of Bible quotes with Mother Maria, Smith acknowledges that he has always wanted to be an architect, but couldn't afford the schooling. His unfulfilled dream impels him to agree to undertake the (unpaid) job of building the sisters a chapel. To earn money to buy some "real food" to supplement the spartan diet the nuns are able to provide him, Smith gets a part-time job with the nearby construction contractor, Ashton (director Ralph Nelson, uncredited), who is impressed that Smith can handle nearly every piece of heavy equipment he owns. Smith supplements the nuns' diet as well, shopping for groceries to stock up their kitchen and delighting them with treats such as lollipops. To pass the evenings, Smith (whom the nuns call "Schmidt") helps the sisters improve their rudimentary English (only Mother Maria speaks the language well enough to converse with him) and joins them in singing. They share their different musical traditions with one another: their Catholic chants and his Baptist hymns. He teaches them to join him in the call-and- response song "Amen" by Jester Hairston (dubbed by Hairston in the film). Smith, determined that the building will be constructed to the highest standards, insists that the work be done by him and only him. Meanwhile, the nuns write letters to various philanthropic organizations and charities asking for money for supplies, but all their requests are denied. As word spreads about the endeavor, locals begin to show up to contribute materials and to help in construction, but Smith rebuffs all offers of assistance in the labor. As he gains a larger and larger audience for his efforts, the locals, impressed with his determination, but no less dogged than he, will content themselves no longer with just watching. They find ways to lend a hand that Smith cannot easily turn down—the lifting of a bucket or brick, for example. Once the process is in motion, they end up doing as they intended, assisting in every aspect of the construction, as well as contributing materials. This greatly accelerates the progress, much to the delight of everyone but Smith. Even Ashton, who has long ignored Mother Maria's pleas, finds an excuse to deliver some more materials. Almost overnight, Smith finds that he's become a building foreman and contractor. Enduring the hassles of coordinating the work of so many, the constant disputes with Mother Maria, and the trial of getting enough materials for the building, Smith brings the chapel to completion, placing the cross on the spire himself and signing his work where only he and God will know. On the evening before the Sunday when the chapel is to be dedicated, all the work has been done and Smith is exhausted. Now that there is nothing more to keep Smith among them, Mother Maria, too proud to ask him outright to stay, insists that he attend the opening Mass next day to receive proper recognition from the congregation. She speaks enthusiastically of all that "Schmidt" still can do to aid the town, such as building a school. Making no reply to any of this, Smith tricks Mother Maria, as part of the night's English lesson, into saying "thank you" to him. Until then, she stubbornly had thanked only God for the work, assistance, and gifts that Smith had provided to the nuns. It is a touching moment between two strong personalities. Later that evening, as he leads the nuns in singing "Amen" once again, Smith slips out the door and, still singing the lead, the nuns' voices chiming softly behind him, takes one last look at the chapel he built. Mother Maria hears him start up his station wagon, but remains stolidly in her seat, singing along with the rest of the sisters, as Smith drives quietly off into the night. 

=====

Diana Scott (Julie Christie) is a beautiful, bored young model married to Tony Bridges (Trevor Bowen). One day, Diana meets Robert Gold (Dirk Bogarde), a literary interviewer/director for television arts programs, by chance when she is spotted on the street by his roving film crew and interviewed by him about young people's views on convention. Diana is invited to watch the final edit in the TV studio, and there their relationship starts. After liaisons in bleak hotel rooms, they leave their spouses (and, in Robert's case, children) and move into an apartment. As a couple, they become part of the fashionable London media/arts set. Initially, Diana is jealous when Robert sees his wife (Pauline Yates) while visiting his children, but she quickly loses this attachment when she mixes with the predatory males of the media, arts and advertising scene, particularly Miles Brand (Laurence Harvey), a powerful advertising executive for the Glass Corporation who gets her a part in a trashy thriller after she has sex with him. The bookish Robert prefers the quiet life; it is he who now becomes jealous, but increasingly detached, depressed and lonely. Diana attends a high-class charity draw for world hunger for which she is the face. The event, adorned by giant images of African famine victims, is at the height of cynical hypocrisy and bad taste, showing Diana's rich white set, which now includes the establishment, playing at concern, gorging themselves, gambling and generally behaving decadently. Already showing signs of stress from constantly maintaining the carefree look demanded by the false, empty lifestyle to which she has become a prisoner, Diana becomes pregnant, and has an abortion. She flies to Paris with Miles for more jet-set sophistication. There she finds the wild party, beat music, strip dance mind game, cross dressing and predatory males and females vaguely repellent and intimidating, but holds her own, gaining the respect of the weird crowd when she taunts Miles in the game. On her return to London, Robert calls her a whore and leaves her, for which she is not emotionally prepared. Miles casts her as "The Happiness Girl" in the Glass Corporation's advertising campaign for a chocolate firm. On location at a palazzo near Rome, Diana smiles in her medieval/Renaissance costume and completes "The Happiness Girl" shoot. She is much taken with the beauty of the building and the landscape and gets on well with the prince, Cesare (José Luis de Villalonga), who owns the palazzo (The Medici villa in Poggio a Caiano was used in the film). With the gay photographer Malcolm (Roland Curram) who has created her now famous look and who is the only person who has shown her any real understanding and friendship, Diana decides to stay on in Italy. They stay in a simple house by a small harbour in Capri. Diana flirts half-heartedly with Catholicism. They are visited by Cesare, who arrives in a huge launch, invites them on board and proposes to Diana. Cesare is widowed and has several children, the oldest of whom is about the same age as Diana. Diana politely declines his proposal, but Cesare leaves the offer open. Diana returns to London, and still living in the flat she shared with Robert, has a party with Miles and other assorted media characters. Robert has aged. Soon disillusioned with Miles and the vacuous London jet set, Diana flirts with the Catholic Church again. Impulsively, she flies to Italy and marries the prince, which proves to be ill-considered. Though waited on hand and foot by servants, she is almost immediately abandoned in the vast palazzo by Cesare, who has gone to Rome, presumably to visit a mistress. Diana flees to London to Robert, who, taking advantage of her emotional vulnerability, charms her into bed and into what she thinks is a stable, long-term relationship. In the morning, in self-disgust, he tells her that he's leaving her and that he fooled her only as an act of revenge. He reserves a flight to Rome, packs her into his car, and takes her to Heathrow airport to send her back to her life as the Princess Della Romita. At the airport, Diana is hounded by the press, who address her reverentially as Princess. She boards the plane to leave. 

=====



=====

Unemployed television writer Murray Burns (Jason Robards) lives in a cluttered New York City studio apartment with his 12-year-old nephew, Nick (Barry Gordon). Murray has been unemployed for five months after quitting his previous job writing jokes for a children's television show called Chuckles the Chipmunk. Nick, the son of Murray's unwed sister, was left with Murray seven years earlier. When Nick writes a school essay on the benefits of unemployment insurance, his school requests that New York State send social workers to investigate his living conditions. Investigators for the Child Welfare Board Sandra Markowitz (Barbara Harris) and her superior and boyfriend, Albert Amundson (William Daniels), threaten Murray with removal of the child from his custody unless he can prove he is a capable guardian. Charmed by Nick and seduced by Murray, Sandra rows with Albert. Murray convinces her to join in his delusional charade, in which seeking work is a kind of joke used to keep the conventional, conformist, and inhumane state from his doorstep. Sandra rationalizes her growing relationship with Murray as encouragement for his attempts to seek employment. Although Murray tries to avoid actually getting a job, he finds himself in a dilemma: if he wishes to keep his nephew, he must swallow his pride and go back to work. Murray also feels that he cannot let go of Nick until the boy has shown some "backbone". In a confrontation with his brother and agent Arnold (Martin Balsam), Murray expounds his nonconformist worldview: that a person must fight at all costs to retain a sense of identity and aliveness, and avoid being absorbed by the homogeneous masses. Arnold retorts that by conforming to the dictates of society, he has become "the best possible Arnold Burns". Murray agrees to meet with his former employer, the detested Chuckles host Leo Herman (Gene Saks). When Nick does not laugh at Leo's pathetic display of comedy, Leo insults Nick, who quietly but firmly puts Leo in his place. Nick becomes upset with Murray for tolerating Leo's insults, and Murray sees the boy has finally grown a backbone. Realizing that Nick has come of age, Murray resigns himself to going back to his old job, and the next morning he joins the crowds of people heading off to work. 

=====

In 1910, Princess Alexandra (Grace Kelly), the daughter of a minor branch of a European royal house, is urged by her mother (Jessie Royce Landis) to accept her cousin the crown prince, Albert (Alec Guinness) as husband so that their family may regain a throne that was taken from them by Napoleon. Princess Alexandra tries to gain Albert's attention; he is otherwise taken with sleeping late, shooting ducks and playing football with Alexandra's two younger brothers. Alexandra's mother urges her to show interest in the tutor, Dr. Nicholas Agi (Louis Jourdan), to make Albert jealous and stimulate a proposal from him. Agi is already taken with Alexandra and when she invites him to the farewell ball for the crown prince he eagerly accepts. Later when they are dancing at the ball it appears that Albert is getting jealous but instead he is more interested in playing the bass viol in the orchestra. Later, Agi tells Alexandra how he feels about her. She tells him that it was all a ploy to get Albert to propose to her and she suspected he felt this way. She realizes that she has some feelings for him but he refuses her. Albert comes to find out about this situation and is a little taken aback. Albert and Agi trade insults. Agi then storms out and tries to leave the next morning. Alexandra, distraught over what happened, tries to leave with him, but he refuses her again. Albert's mother, The Queen, (Agnes Moorehead), shows up and gets the entire story and is aghast. Albert gives his blessing to the pair and says that when he is king he will allow them back into the country. However, Agi ends up leaving the mansion without Alexandra. Albert tries to console Alexandra by telling her she is like a swan: on the water she looks serene, but on land she is more like a goose. Albert then offers Alexandra his arm and they walk back into the mansion together. 

=====

A handsome Cockney, self-centered, narcissistic chauffeur in London named Alfred (Alfie) Elkins enjoys the sexual favours of married and single women, while avoiding any commitment. He ends an affair with a married woman, Siddie, just as he gets his submissive single girlfriend, Gilda, pregnant. Alfie thinks nothing of pilfering fuel and money from his employer, and tells Gilda to do the same. Although Alfie refuses to marry Gilda and cheats on her constantly, Gilda decides to have the child, a boy named Malcolm Alfred, and keep him rather than give him up for adoption. Over time, Alfie becomes quite attached to his delightful son, but his unwillingness to marry Gilda causes her to break up with him and marry Humphrey, a kindly bus conductor and neighbour of hers who loves her and is willing to accept Malcolm Alfred as his own son. She also bars Alfie from any further contact with Malcolm, forcing Alfie to watch from a distance as Humphrey steps into his fatherly role. When a health check reveals Alfie has tubercular shadows on his lungs, the diagnosis, and his fear of death, combined with his separation from his son, leads him to have a brief mental breakdown. Alfie spends time in a convalescent home, where he befriends a fellow patient named Harry, a family man devoted to his frumpy wife Lily. Alfie makes out with one of the nurses, which disgusts Harry. Alfie thinks nothing of cheating, lying, stealing, or taking other men's wives. When Alfie flippantly suggests that Lily might be cheating on Harry, Harry angrily confronts Alfie about his attitudes and behaviour. Alfie is released from the home and briefly stops working as a chauffeur to take holiday photos of tourists near the Tower of London for five shillings each. Here he meets Ruby, an older, voluptuous, affluent and promiscuous American, who, even though she is accompanied by an older gentleman, gives him her address and telephone number. Alfie returns to the convalescent home to visit Harry, who asks him to give his wife Lily a ride home. Neither Alfie nor Lily initially want to spend time together, but they agree to please Harry, and the ride home turns into a one-night stand. Later, Alfie becomes a chauffeur again and picks up a young red-headed hitchhiker, Annie, from Sheffield, who is looking to make a fresh start in London. He manages to steal her away from a lorry driver who had given her a lift, and she moves in with him. Annie proves preoccupied with a love left behind, scrubbing Alfie's floor, doing his laundry, and preparing his meals to compensate. The lorry driver finds him in a pub, punches him in the face and a barroom brawl ensues. Alfie comes home with a big black eye. He grows resentful of Annie and drives her out with an angry outburst, immediately regretting it. Around the same time, Lily informs him that she is pregnant from their one encounter, and the two plan for her to have an illegal abortion to keep Harry from finding out. Lily comes to his flat to meet the abortionist. During the abortion, Alfie leaves Lily and walks around. He catches sight of his son Malcolm outside a church, and witnesses the baptism of Gilda and Humphrey's new daughter. He watches as they exit the church as a family. The abortion proves traumatic for both Lily and Alfie, with Alfie breaking down in tears upon seeing the aborted fetus, the only time Alfie truly confronts the consequences of his own actions. The stress of the situations with Annie and Lily makes Alfie decide to change his non-committal ways and settle down with the rich Ruby. However, upon visiting Ruby, he finds a younger man in her bed. He encounters Siddie again, but she has lost interest in him and returned to her husband. Alfie is left lonely and wondering about his life's choices, then asks the viewers "What's it all about? You know what I mean." 

=====

A Soviet Navy submarine called Спрут ("Octopus") draws too close to the New England coast one September morning when its captain (Theodore Bikel) wants to take a good look at America and runs aground on a sandbar near the fictional Gloucester Island, which, from other references in the movie, is located off the coast of Cape Ann or Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and has a significant population of summer visitors but is now down to about 200 local residents. Rather than radio for help and risk an embarrassing international incident, the captain sends a nine-man landing party, headed by his zampolit (Political Officer) Lieutenant Yuri Rozanov (Alan Arkin), to find a motor launch to help free the submarine from the bar. The men arrive at the house of Walt Whittaker (Carl Reiner), a vacationing playwright from New York City. Whittaker is eager to get his wife Elspeth (Eva Marie Saint) and two children, obnoxious but precocious nine and half-year-old Pete (Sheldon Collins) and three-year-old Annie (Cindy Putnam), off the island now that summer is over. Pete tells his disbelieving dad that "nine Russians with tommy guns" dressed in black uniforms are near the house, but Walt is soon met by Rozanov and one of his men, Alexei Kolchin (John Phillip Law), who identify themselves as strangers on the island and ask if there are any boats available. Walt is skeptical and asks if they are "Russians with machine guns," which startles Rozanov into admitting that they are Russians, and pulling a gun on Walt. Walt provides information on the military and police forces of their island, and Rozanov promises no harm to the Whittakers if they hand over their station wagon. Elspeth provides the car keys, but before the Russians depart, Rozanov orders Alexei to prevent the Whittakers from fleeing. An attractive 18-year-old neighbor, Alison Palmer (Andrea Dromm), who works as a babysitter for Annie, arrives to work that day and finds herself captive as well.Hal Erickson, "The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966)", New York Times, accessed January 1, 2009 The Whittakers' station wagon quickly runs out of gasoline, forcing the Russians to walk. They steal an old sedan from Muriel Everett (Doro Merande), the postmistress; she calls Alice Foss (Tessie O'Shea), the gossipy telephone switchboard operator, and before long, wild rumors about Russian parachutists and an air assault on the airport throw the entire island into confusion. Level-headed Police Chief Link Mattocks (Brian Keith) and his bumbling assistant Norman Jonas (Jonathan Winters) try to squelch an inept citizens' militia led by the blustering Fendall Hawkins (Paul Ford) Meanwhile, Walt, accompanied by Elspeth and Pete, manages to overpower Alexei, because the Russian is reluctant to hurt anyone. During the commotion, Alexei flees, but when Walt and Elspeth and Pete leave to find help, he reappears at the house and retrieves his weapon, where only Alison and Annie remain. Alexei says that although he does not want any fighting, he must obey his superiors in guarding the residence. He promises he will not harm anyone and offers to surrender his submachine gun as proof. Alison tells him that she trusts him and does not need to hand over his firearm. Alexei and Alison become attracted to each other, taking a walk along the beach with Annie, and finding commonality despite their different cultures and the Cold War hostility between their countries. Trying to find the Russians on his own, Walt is re-captured by them in the telephone central office. After subduing Mrs. Foss and tying her and Walt together, and disabling the island's telephone switchboard, seven of the Russians appropriate civilian clothes from a dry cleaners, manage to steal a cabin cruiser, and head to the submarine, still aground on the sandbar. Back at the Whittaker house, Alexei and Alison have kissed and fallen in love. One of the most comedic scenes follows where Rozanov is attempting to teach several crew members an English phrase in case they should encounter anyone: “Emergency, everybody to get from street....Emergency, everybody to get from street...” Back at the phone exchange, Walt and Mrs. Foss, still tied together, manage to hop outside the office but fall down the stairs to the sidewalk below. They are discovered there by Elspeth and Pete, who help untie them. They return to their house and Walt shoots at and almost kills Rozanov, who had arrived there just before they did. With the misunderstandings cleared up, the Whittakers, Rozanov, and Alexei decide to head into town together to explain to everyone just what is going on. As the tide rises, the sub floats off the sandbar before the cabin cruiser arrives, and it proceeds on the surface to the island's main harbor. Chief Mattocks, having investigated and debunked the rumor of an aerial assault, arrives back in town with the civilian militia. With Rozanov acting as translator, the Russian captain threatens to open fire on the town with his deck gun and machine guns unless the seven missing sailors are returned to him; his crew faces upwards of a hundred armed, apprehensive, but determined townspeople. Chief Mattocks warns the Soviet officer, "You come in here scaring people half to death, you steal cars and motorboats, and you cause damage to private property and you threaten the whole community with grievous bodily harm and maybe murder. Now, we ain't going to take any more of that, see? We may be scared, but maybe we ain't so scared as you think we are, see? Now you say you're going to blow up the town, huh? Well, I say, all right! You start shooting, and see what happens!" As the Captain and Chief Mattocks glare at each other, two small boys go up in the church steeple to see better. With tension approaching the breaking point, one of the boys (Johnny Whitaker) slips and falls from the steeple, but his belt catches on a gutter, leaving him precariously hanging forty feet in the air. Immediately uniting to save the child, the American islanders and the Russian submariners form a human pyramid and Alexei rescues him. Peace and harmony are established between the two parties, but unfortunately, the over-eager Hawkins has contacted the Air Force by radio. In a joint decision, the submarine heads out of the harbor with a convoy of villagers in small boats protecting it. Alexei says goodbye to Alison, the stolen boat with the missing Russian sailors meets its sub shortly thereafter, and the seven board the submarine, just before two Air Force F-101B Voodoo jets arrive. The jets break off after seeing the escorting flotilla of small craft, and to the cheers of the islanders, the Octopus is free to proceed to deep water and safety."Overview for The Russians are Coming, the Russians are coming, Turner Classic Movies, accessed January 1, 2009 Just before the closing credits, Luther Grilk (Ben Blue), the town drunk, who had been trying unsuccessfully to mount his horse, finally does so, and rides heroically to the outer parts of the island, shouting, "The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!", not knowing that they had already left. 

=====

In 1926, Petty Officer, First Class Jake Holman transfers to the Yangtze River Patrol gunboat USS San Pablo. The ship is nicknamed the "Sand Pebble" and its sailors "Sand Pebbles". The crew have hired coolies to do most of the work. Holman, as chief Machinist's Mate, takes hands-on responsibility for the operation and maintenance of the ship's engine, upsetting the head engine room coolie, Chien. Holman also earns the antipathy of most of his fellow sailors, but does become close friends with Frenchy, a seasoned yet sensitive sailor. While the ship is underway on patrol, Holman discovers a serious problem with the engine. He informs the captain, Lieutenant Collins, that they must stop for repairs, but Collins refuses until executive officer Bordelles declares a mechanical emergency. Chien insists on making the repairs, and Holman acquiesces so that Chien can save face. Chien is killed when the locked engine slips into gear, and chief coolie Lop-eye Shing blames Holman. Holman selects Po-Han to take on Chien's work; in time, the two become friends. Po-Han is harassed by a large, bullying sailor named Stawski, resulting in a boxing match on which the crewmen place bets. Holman is in the corner of his friend Po-Han, who, despite being badly beaten by Stawski, eventually prevails. His victory leads to more friction between Holman and the rest of the crew. When news comes of an incident involving British gunboats, Collins orders the crew not to return any fire from the Chinese, to avoid a diplomatic incident. Lop- eye Shing purposely sends Po-Han ashore, where he is predictably chased down the beach, captured, and slowly tortured by a mob. When Collins is unable to buy Po-Han's release, Po-Han begs for someone to kill him; Holman disobeys orders and shoots his friend. The San Pablo remains moored on the Xiang River at Changsha, due to low water levels, through the winter of 1926–27. It must deal with increasingly hostile crowds surrounding it in numerous smaller boats. Lt Collins also fears a mutiny. Frenchy has saved an educated Chinese woman, Maily, from prostitution by paying her debts. He marries her and regularly swims ashore to visit, but dies of pneumonia one night. Holman finds Maily sitting by Frenchy's corpse. Some Chinese men burst in, beat Holman, and kill Maily for which they frame Holman. The next day several Chinese demand Holman be turned over to them as the "murderer" of Maily and her unborn baby. When the demand is rejected, the Chinese blockade the gunboat. The crew fear for their safety and demand that Holman surrender to the Chinese. Order is not restored until Collins fires a Lewis gun across the bow of one of the Chinese sampans. With spring's arrival, the crew can restart river patrols, but the Nanking Incident results in orders to return to the coast. Collins disobeys and travels upstream of Dongting Lake to evacuate idealistic, anti-imperialist missionary Jameson and his school-teacher assistant, Shirley Eckert, from a remote mission. Holman had met Eckert in Hangkow months earlier, and the two had fledgling romantic feelings for each other. The San Pablo must break through a boom made up of junks linked by a massive bamboo rope blocking the river. A boarding party is sent to cut the rope. Fighting breaks out in which twelve US crewmen and many more Chinese are killed. Holman chops through the rope, with an axe, while under fire. He is forced to kill a young Chinese militiaman who attacks him, then recognizes him as a friend of Jameson and Eckert. The ship continues upriver. Collins leads Holman, Crosley, and Bronson ashore. Jameson refuses rescue, claiming that he and Eckert have renounced their US citizenship. Collins orders Holman to forcibly remove Eckert and Jameson, but Holman declares he is going to stay with them. Nationalist soldiers suddenly attack, killing Jameson. Collins orders the patrol to take Eckert to the ship, and remains behind to provide covering fire. Collins is killed, ironically leaving the normally rebellious Holman in command. Holman and Eckert have a tearful parting, finally making clear their love for each other, with Holman assuring her he will be following shortly. Holman kills a dozen soldiers but is fatally shot just when he is about to rejoin the others. His last bewildered words are, "I was home. What happened. What the hell happened?" Eckert and the remaining two sailors reach the ship, and the San Pablo sails away. 

=====

Bartleby and Loki are fallen angels, eternally banished from heaven to Wisconsin for insubordination, after an inebriated Loki resigned as the Angel of Death. In a newspaper article that arrives anonymously, the angels discover a way home: Cardinal Ignatius Glick is rededicating his church in Red Bank, New Jersey, in the image of the "Buddy Christ". Anyone entering during the rededication festivities will receive a plenary indulgence, remitting all sins. Were the banished angels to undergo this rite and then die after transmuting into human form, God would have no choice but to allow them re- entry into Heaven. They are encouraged by the demon Azrael and the Stygian triplets, three teenaged hoodlums who serve Azrael in hell. Bethany Sloane—a despondent abortion clinic counselor—attends a service at her church in Illinois. Donations are solicited for a campaign to stop a New Jersey hospital from disconnecting life support on John Doe Jersey, a homeless man who was beaten by the triplets and is now in a coma. Metatron—a seraph, and the voice of God—appears to Bethany in a pillar of fire and explains that if Bartleby and Loki succeed in re-entering Heaven, they will overrule the word of God, disprove the fundamental concept of God's omnipotence, and nullify all of existence. Bethany, aided by two prophets, must stop the angels and save the universe. Now a target, Bethany is attacked by the triplets, who are driven off by the two foretold prophets—drug-dealing stoners Jay and Silent Bob. Bethany and the prophets are joined by Rufus, the 13th apostle, and Serendipity, the Muse of creative inspiration, now working in a strip club in search of inspiration of her own. Azrael summons the Golgothan, a vile creature made of human excrement, but Bob immobilizes it with aerosol air freshener. On a train to New Jersey, a drunken Bethany reveals her mission to Bartleby, who tries to kill her; Bob throws the angels off the train. Bartleby and Loki now realize the consequences of their scheme; Loki wants no part of destroying all existence, but Bartleby remains angry at God for his expulsion, and for granting free will to humans, while demanding servitude from angels, and resolves to proceed. Bethany asks why she has been called upon to save the universe; why can't God simply do it himself? Metatron admits that God's whereabouts are unknown; he disappeared while visiting New Jersey in human form to play skee ball. The task falls to Bethany because—she now learns—she is the last scion, a distant but direct blood relative of Jesus. The group fails to persuade Glick to cancel the celebration. Jay steals one of Glick's golf clubs. Their only remaining option is to keep the angels out of the church, but Azrael and the triplets trap them in a bar to prevent them from doing so. Azrael reveals that he sent the news clipping to the angels; he would rather end all existence than spend eternity in Hell. Bob kills Azrael with the golf club, which Glick had blessed to improve his game. Bethany blesses the bar sink's contents, and the others drown the triplets in the holy water. They race to the church, where Bartleby kills Glick, his parishioners, and assorted bystanders. When Loki (who is now wingless, and therefore mortal, with a conscience) attempts to stop him, Bartleby kills him as well. Jay attempts to seduce Bethany before all existence ends; when he mentions John Doe Jersey, Bethany finally puts all of the clues together. Bob and she race across the street to the hospital, as the others try to block Bartleby's path to the church. Bethany disconnects John's life support, liberating God, but killing herself. Bartleby reaches the church entrance, where he confronts God, manifested in female form; she annihilates him with her voice. Bob arrives with Bethany's lifeless body; God resurrects her, and conceives a child — the new last scion — within her womb. God, Metatron, Rufus, and Serendipity return to Heaven, leaving Bethany and the prophets to reflect on the past, and the future. 

=====

In early Victorian England, Matthew Mugg (Anthony Newley) takes his young friend Tommy Stubbins (William Dix) to visit eccentric Doctor John Dolittle (Rex Harrison) for an injured duck that Matthew had acquired from a local fisherman. Dolittle, a former medical doctor, lives with an extended menagerie, including a chimpanzee named Chee-Chee, a dog named Jip, and a talking blue-and-yellow macaw named Polynesia (the uncredited voice of Ginny Tyler). Dolittle claims that he can talk to animals. In a flashback, he explains that he kept so many animals in his home that they created havoc with his human patients, who took their medical needs elsewhere. His sister, who served as his housekeeper, demanded that he dispose of the animals or she would leave; he chose the animals. Polynesia taught him that different animal species can talk to each other, prompting Dolittle to study animal languages so that he could become an animal doctor. He is planning his latest expedition: to search for the legendary Great Pink Sea Snail. The next day, while treating a horse for nearsightedness, Dolittle is accused by the horse's owner, General Bellowes (Peter Bull), of stealing his horse and ruining his fox hunt by sheltering and protecting the fox (a vixen named Sheila) and her children, by a group of skunks that protect the foxes, which drive the bloodhounds out of the barn where the skunks are kept. Bellowes' niece, Emma Fairfax (Samantha Eggar), offended by his lack of human empathy, chides Dolittle for his rudeness to her uncle, while he states his contempt for her and other humans who hunt animals, causing her to storm off. Matthew falls in love with her at first sight. An American Indian friend of Dolittle's sends him a rare Pushmi-pullyu, a creature that looks like a llama with a head on each end of its body, so that Dolittle can earn money for his expedition. Dolittle takes the creature to a nearby circus, run by Albert Blossom (Richard Attenborough), where the Pushmi-Pullyu becomes the star attraction. The doctor befriends a circus seal named Sophie who longs to return to her husband at the North Pole. Dolittle smuggles her out of the circus, disguises her in women's clothing to convey her to the coast, and then throws her into the ocean. Fishermen mistake the seal for a woman and have Doctor Dolittle arrested on a charge of murder. General Bellowes is the magistrate in his case, but Dolittle proves he can converse with animals by talking with Bellowes' dog and revealing details that only Bellowes and the dog could know. Although Dolittle is acquitted on the murder charge, the vindictive judge sentences him to a lunatic asylum. Dolittle's animal friends engineer his escape, and he, Matthew, Tommy, Polynesia, Chee-Chee and Jip set sail in search of the Great Pink Sea Snail. Emma, by this time fascinated by Dolittle, stows away, seeking adventure. They randomly choose their destination: Sea-Star Island, a floating island currently in the Atlantic Ocean. The ship is torn apart during a storm. Everyone washes ashore on Sea-Star Island, where Emma and Dolittle admit they have grown to like each other. The party is met by the island's natives, whom they mistake for hostile savages. The populace are in fact highly educated and cultured from reading books that have washed ashore from innumerable shipwrecks. Their leader is William Shakespeare the Tenth (Geoffrey Holder); his name reflects the tribe's tradition of naming children after favorite authors. William explains that they are wary of strangers coming to the island, and that the tropical island is currently endangered because it is drifting north into colder waters and all the animals on the island have caught colds. Mistrust leads the islanders to blame the doctor and his party. Dolittle persuades a whale to push the island south, but this causes a balancing rock to drop into a volcano, fulfilling a prophecy that dooms Dolittle and party to "die of 10,000 screams." However, the push by the whale also causes the island to rejoin the unknown mainland, fulfilling another prophecy that dictates that the doctor and his friends be heralded as heroes and they are freed. While treating the animals on the island, Dolittle receives a surprise patient – the Great Pink Sea Snail, which has also caught a severe cold. Dolittle discovers that the snail's shell is watertight and can carry passengers. Dolittle sends Matthew, Tommy, Emma, Polynesia, Chee-Chee, and Jip back to England with the snail. Emma wishes to stay on the island with him, but the Doctor is adamant that a relationship would never work. She finally admits her feelings for the Doctor, and kisses him goodbye. Dolittle cannot go back because he is still a wanted man. Furthermore, he wishes to investigate the natives' stories of another creature, the Giant Luna Moth. After his friends have left, Dolittle realizes painfully that he has feelings for Emma. Sometime later, Sophie the seal arrives accompanied by her husband. They bring a message: the animals of England have gone on strike to protest his sentence and Bellowes has agreed to pardon him. Dolittle and the islanders construct a saddle for the Giant Luna Moth and Dolittle rides the creature back to England. 

=====

Rachel Cameron (Joanne Woodward) is a shy, 35-year-old unmarried schoolteacher living with her widowed mother in an apartment above the funeral home once owned by her father in a small town in Connecticut. School is out for summer vacation, and Rachel anticipates a typical bored summer at home with her mother. Fellow unmarried teacher and best friend Calla Mackie (Estelle Parsons) persuades her to attend a revival meeting, where a visiting preacher encourages Rachel to express her need for the love of Jesus. Rachel is overwhelmed by the experience, baring so much pent-up emotion that she is embarrassed; comforting her, Calla suddenly kisses Rachel passionately. Rachel, shocked, runs home and begins avoiding Calla. Nick Kazlik (James Olson), Rachel's high-school classmate who now teaches at an inner city school in The Bronx, arrives for a short visit. Upon first seeing Rachel, Nick makes a crude pass that Rachel rebuffs, but after the episode with Calla, she succumbs to his charms and has her first sexual experience. Mistaking lust for love, she begins to plan a future with Nick, who quickly rejects her by showing her a photo of a young boy, implying that it is his son. Through Nick's mother, Rachel later discovers he has no wife and child. Believing she is pregnant, Rachel plans to leave town and raise the child. With Calla's assistance, she finds another teaching job in Oregon, but before the summer ends, she learns she is not pregnant and that her symptoms are due to a benign cyst. After undergoing surgery to have the cyst removed, she tells her mother that she has decided to relocate, and that her mother may accompany her or not as she wishes. Her mother reluctantly agrees to go. Rachel sets out with hope for the future, having learned that she has choices, that she is able to give and receive sexual pleasure, and that it is possible for her to take on life actively rather than wait for it to find her. 

=====

One summer morning in Verona, Veneto, a longstanding feud between the Montague and the Capulet clans breaks out in a street brawl. The brawl is broken up by the Prince, who warns both families that any future violence between them will result in harsh consequences. That night, two teenagers of the two families—Romeo and Juliet—meet at a Capulet masked ball and become deeply infatuated. Later, Romeo stumbles into the secluded garden under Juliet's bedroom balcony and the two exchange impassioned pledges. They are secretly married the next day by Romeo's confessor and father figure, Friar Laurence, with the assistance of Juliet's nurse. That afternoon, Juliet's first cousin Tybalt, furious that Romeo had attended his family's ball, insults him and challenges him to a brawl. Romeo regards Tybalt as family and he refuses to fight him, which leads Romeo's best friend, Mercutio, to fight Tybalt instead. Despite Romeo's efforts to stop the fight, Tybalt badly wounds Mercutio, who curses both the Montague and Capulet houses before dying. Enraged over his friend's death, Romeo retaliates by fighting Tybalt and killing him. Romeo is subsequently punished by the Prince with banishment from Verona, with the threat of death if he ever returns. Romeo, however, sees his banishment as worse than the death penalty, as Verona is the only home he has known and he does not want to be separated from Juliet. Friar Laurence eventually convinces Romeo that he is very lucky and that he should be more thankful for what he has. Romeo then secretly spends his wedding night together with Juliet and the couple consummate their marriage before Romeo flees. Juliet's father and mother, unaware of their daughter's secret marriage, have arranged for Juliet to marry wealthy Count Paris. Juliet pleads with her parents to postpone the marriage, but they refuse and threaten to disown her. Juliet seeks out Friar Laurence for help, hoping to escape her arranged marriage to Paris and remain faithful to Romeo. At Friar Laurence's behest, she reconciles with her parents and agrees to their wishes. On the night before the wedding, Juliet consumes a potion prepared by Friar Laurence intended to make her appear dead for forty- two hours. Friar Laurence plans to inform Romeo of the hoax so that Romeo can meet Juliet after her burial and escape with her when she recovers from her swoon, so he sends Friar John to give Romeo a letter describing the plan. However, when Balthasar, Romeo's servant, sees Juliet being buried under the impression that she is dead, he goes to tell Romeo and reaches him before Friar John. In despair, Romeo goes to Juliet's tomb and kills himself by drinking poison. Soon afterwards, Friar Laurence arrives as Juliet awakens. Despite his attempts to persuade her to flee from the crypt, Juliet refuses to leave Romeo, and once the Friar flees, she kills herself by plunging his dagger into her abdomen. Later, the two families attend their joint funeral and are chastised by the Prince. 

=====

LAPD SWAT bomb disposal officers Jack Traven and Harry Temple thwart an attempt to hold an elevator full of people for a $3 million ransom by an extortionist bomber, later identified as Howard Payne. As they corner Payne, he takes Harry hostage. Jack intentionally shoots Harry in the leg, forcing the bomber to release him. Payne flees and sets off the bomb, seemingly dying in the process. Jack and Harry are praised by Lieutenant "Mac" McMahon, with Harry being promoted. Having survived the incident however, Payne watches from afar. The next morning, Jack witnesses a mass transit bus explode. Payne contacts Jack on a nearby payphone, explaining that a similar bomb is rigged on another bus, which will activate once it reaches and detonate if it drops below 50. He also demands a ransom of $3.7 million and threatens to detonate the bus if the passengers are offloaded. Jack races through freeway traffic and boards the bus, but the bomb is already armed. He explains the situation to Sam Silver, the bus driver. However, a criminal on board, fearing Jack is about to arrest him, wildly discharges his gun, accidentally wounding Sam. Another passenger, Annie Porter, takes over for Sam, but when she tries to slow down so he can get help, Jack is forced to reveal the bomb, to the passengers' shock and horror. Jack examines the bomb underneath the bus and calls Harry, who works to identify the bomber. After a harrowing adventure through city traffic, the police clear a route to an unopened freeway. Mac demands that they offload the passengers onto a flatbed trailer, but Jack warns him about Payne's plot. Witnessing the events on TV, Payne calls Jack to reiterate his instructions. While he is convinced to allow the injured Sam to be offloaded for medical attention as a show of good will, Payne detonates a smaller bomb after witnessing a passenger attempt to get off, killing her. When Jack learns part of the freeway is incomplete, he persuades Annie to accelerate so they can jump the gap, which narrowly succeeds, before directing her to a nearby airport to use their unobstructed runways. Meanwhile, Harry identifies Payne's name, former occupation as a bomb squad officer, and address. He leads a SWAT team to Payne's home, but the property explodes, killing them. In a last-ditch attempt to defuse the bomb, Jack goes under the bus on a towed sled, but he accidentally punctures the fuel tank when the sled breaks from its tow line. After the passengers bring him back aboard, Jack learns that Harry has been killed and that Payne has been watching the passengers on a hidden surveillance camera. Mac has a local news crew record the transmission and rebroadcasts it on a loop to fool Payne while the passengers are offloaded onto an airport bus. Jack and Annie escape through a floor access panel before the empty bus collides with a Boeing 707 cargo plane and explodes. Jack and Mac head to Pershing Square to drop the ransom. Realizing that he has been fooled, no one died in the explosion, and the LAPD are waiting for him, Payne poses as a police officer to kidnap Annie and recover the ransom. Jack follows Payne into the Metro Red Line subway, where Annie is fitted with an explosive vest rigged to a pressure-release detonator. Payne hijacks a subway train, handcuffs Annie to a pole, and sets the train in motion while Jack pursues them. After killing the train engineer, Payne attempts a bribe with the ransom money, but is enraged when a dye pack in the bag explodes, tainting the cash. A crazed Payne battles Jack on the train's roof before the former is decapitated by a railway signal. Jack deactivates Annie's vest, but cannot free her from the pole as Payne had the key to her handcuffs. Unable to stop the train, Jack accelerates it, causing it to plow through a construction site and burst onto Hollywood Boulevard, which eventually frees Annie. Out of the train, Jack and Annie share a kiss while a crowd looks on in amusement. 

=====

In 1923 Tennessee, two best friends, Rafe McCawley and Danny Walker, play together in the back of an old biplane, pretending to be soldiers fighting the German Empire in World War I. In January 1941, with World War II raging, Danny and Rafe are both first lieutenants under the command of Major Jimmy Doolittle. Doolittle informs Rafe that he has been accepted into the Eagle Squadron (an RAF outfit for American pilots during the Battle of Britain). A nurse named Evelyn Johnson passes Rafe’s medical exam despite his dyslexia, and the two strike up a relationship. Four weeks later, Rafe and Evelyn, now deeply in love, enjoy an evening of dancing at a nightclub and later a jaunt in the New York harbor in a borrowed police boat. Rafe shocks Evelyn by saying that he has joined the Eagle Squadron and is leaving the next day. During a mission to intercept a Luftwaffe bombing raid, Rafe is shot down over the English Channel and is presumed killed in action. Evelyn mourns his death and turns to Danny, which spurs a new romance between the two. Meanwhile, Japan prepares to attack the US fleet for cutting off their oil supply. On the night of December 6, Evelyn is shocked to discover Rafe standing outside her door, having survived his downing and spending the ensuing months trapped in Nazi-occupied France. Rafe, in turn, discovers Danny's romance with Evelyn and leaves for the Hula bar, where he is welcomed back by his overjoyed fellow pilots. Danny finds a drunken Rafe in the bar with the intention of making things right, but the two get into a fight. They drive away, avoiding being put in the brig when the military police arrive at the bar. The two later fall asleep in Danny's car. Next morning, on December 7, the Imperial Japanese Navy begins its attack on Pearl Harbor. The US Pacific Fleet suffers severe damage in the surprise attack, and most of the defending airfields are obliterated before they are able to launch fighters to defend the harbor. Rafe and Danny manage to take off in P-40 fighter planes, and are able to shoot down several of the attacking planes. They later assist in the rescue of the crew of the capsized , but are too late to save the crew of the sinking . The next day, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivers his Day of Infamy Speech to the nation and requests the US Congress declare a state of war with the Empire of Japan. The survivors attend a memorial service to honor the numerous dead. Later, Danny and Rafe are both assigned to travel stateside under newly promoted Lt. Colonel Doolittle for a secret mission. Before they leave, Evelyn reveals to Rafe that she is pregnant with Danny's child and intends to stay with Danny for the child’s sake, but she reassures him that he is the one she will always truly love. Upon their arrival in California, Danny and Rafe are both promoted to Captain and awarded the Silver Star, and volunteer for a secret mission under Doolittle. During the next three months, Rafe, Danny and other pilots train with specially modified B-25 Mitchell bombers. In April, the raiders are sent toward Japan on board . Their mission: bomb Tokyo, after doing so they will land in allied China. The mission is successful, except at the end Rafe and Danny's plane crashes. They are held at gunpoint by Japanese soldiers. A gunfight ensues, and Danny is mortally wounded shielding Rafe before the group are rescued by Chinese soldiers. Rafe tearfully reveals to Danny that Evelyn is pregnant with Danny's child; with his dying breaths, Danny tells Rafe that it is his child now. After the war, Rafe and Evelyn, now married, visit Danny's grave with Evelyn's son, named Danny after his biological father. Rafe then asks his stepson if he would like to go flying, and they fly off into the sunset in the old biplane that Rafe’s father once owned. 

=====

General George S. Patton addresses an unseen audience of American troops to raise their morale, focusing in particular on the value placed on winning by American society. Following the humiliating American defeat at the Battle of the Kasserine Pass in 1943, Patton is placed in charge of the American II Corps in North Africa. Upon his arrival, he immediately starts enforcing discipline among his troops. At a meeting with Air Marshal Coningham of the Royal Air Force, he claims that the American defeat was caused by lack of air cover. Coningham promises Patton that he will see no more German aircraft – but seconds later the compound is strafed by them. Patton then defeats a German attack at the Battle of El Guettar; his aide Captain Jenson is killed in the battle, and is replaced by Lieutenant Colonel Codman. Patton is bitterly disappointed to learn that Erwin Rommel, commander of the German- Italian Panzer Army, was on medical leave, but Codman suggests that: "If you've defeated Rommel's plan, you've defeated Rommel." After success in the North Africa campaign, Patton and Bernard Montgomery come up with competing plans for the Allied invasion of Sicily. Patton's proposal to land his Seventh Army in the northwest of the island with Montgomery in the southeast (therefore potentially trapping the German and Italian forces in a pincer movement) initially impresses their superior General Alexander, but General Eisenhower rejects it in favor of Montgomery's more cautious plan, which places Patton's army in the southeast, covering Montgomery's flank. While the landing is successful, the Allied forces become bogged down, causing Patton to defy orders and advance northwest to Palermo, and then to the port of Messina in the northeast, narrowly beating Montgomery to the prize, although several thousand German and Italian troops are able to flee the island. Patton insists that his feud with Montgomery is due to the latter's determination to monopolize the war glory. However, Patton's actions do not sit well with his subordinates Bradley and Lucian Truscott. While on a visit to a field hospital, Patton notices a shell-shocked soldier (Tim Considine) crying. Calling him a coward, Patton slaps the soldier and even threatens to shoot him, before demanding his immediate return to the front line. By Eisenhower's order, Patton is relieved of command and required to apologize to the soldier, to others present, and to his entire command. As a further punishment, he is also sidelined during the D-Day landings in 1944, being placed in command of the decoy phantom First United States Army Group in southeast England – which also makes the decoy army more convincing, as German General Alfred Jodl is convinced that Patton will lead the invasion of Europe. After Patton begs his former subordinate Bradley for a command before the war ends, Eisenhower places Patton under Bradley in command of the Third Army. He performs brilliantly by rapidly advancing through France, but his tanks are brought to a standstill when they run out of fuel as, much to his fury, the supplies were allocated to Montgomery's Operation Market Garden. Later, during the Battle of the Bulge, Patton leads a successful relief effort to the town of Bastogne, then continuing through the Siegfried Line and into Germany. At a war drive in Knutsford, England, General Patton remarks lightly that the United States and the United Kingdom would dominate the post-war world, but this is viewed as an insult to the Soviet Union. After Germany capitulates, Patton directly insults the Soviet general Mikhail Katukov at a dinner who insults Patton right back, much to Patton's amusement. Patton then makes an offhand remark comparing the Nazi Party to American political parties. Ultimately, Patton's outspokenness loses him his command once again, though he is kept on to see to the rebuilding of Germany, where a runaway oxcart narrowly misses him. Finally, Patton is seen walking Willie, his bull terrier, across the German countryside. Patton's voice is heard relating that a returning hero of ancient Rome was honored with a triumph, a victory parade in which "a slave stood behind the conqueror, holding a golden crown, and whispering in his ear a warning: That all glory ... is fleeting." 

=====

The Chicago area is paralyzed by a snowstorm affecting Lincoln International Airport. A Trans Global Airlines (TGA) Boeing 707 flight crew misjudge their turn from Runway 29 onto the taxiway, becoming stuck in the snow and closing that runway. Airport manager Mel Bakersfeld is forced to work overtime, causing tension with his wife, Cindy. A divorce seems imminent as he nurtures a closer relationship with a co-worker, TGA customer relations agent Tanya Livingston. Vernon Demerest is a TGA captain scheduled to be the checkride captain for the airline to evaluate Captain Anson Harris during TGA Flight 2 to Rome. TGA's flagship international service, named The Golden Argosy, is being operated with a Boeing 707. Although Demerest is married to Bakersfeld's sister, Sarah, he is secretly having an affair with Gwen Meighen, chief stewardess on the flight, who informs him before takeoff that she is pregnant with his child. Bakersfeld borrows TWA mechanic Joe Patroni to assist with moving TGA's disabled plane blocking Runway 29. Bakersfeld and Tanya also deal with Ada Quonsett, an elderly widow from San Diego who is a habitual stowaway on various airlines. Demolition expert D.O. Guerrero, down on his luck and with a history of mental illness, buys both a one-way TGA ticket aboard TGA Flight 2 and a large life insurance policy with the intent of committing suicide by blowing up the plane. He plans to set off a bomb in an attaché case while over the Atlantic Ocean so that his wife, Inez, will collect the insurance money of $225,000 ($ million today). His erratic behavior at the airport, including using his last cash to buy the insurance policy and mistaking a U.S. Customs officer for an airline gate agent, attracts airport officials' attention. Inez finds a Special Delivery envelope from a travel agency and, realizing D.O. might be doing something desperate, goes to the airport to try to dissuade him. She informs airport officials that he had been fired from a construction job for "misplacing" explosives and that the family's financial situation is dire. Ada Quonsett manages to evade the TGA employee assigned the task of putting her on a flight back to Los Angeles. Enchanted by the idea of a trip to Rome, she talks her way past the gate agent, boards Flight 2, and happens to sit next to Guerrero. When Flight 2's crew is made aware of Guerrero's presence and possible intentions, they turn the plane back toward Chicago without informing the passengers. Once Ada is discovered, her help is enlisted by the crew to get to Guerrero's briefcase, but the ploy fails when a troublesome passenger interferes and returns the case to Guerrero. Demerest goes back into the passenger cabin and tries to persuade Guerrero not to trigger the bomb, informing him that his insurance policy has been nullified. Guerrero briefly moves to give Demerest the bomb, but just then another passenger exits the lavatory at the rear of the aircraft, and the same troublesome passenger yells out that Guerrero has a bomb. Guerrero runs into the lavatory and sets off the bomb, dying instantly and blowing a three-foot hole in the fuselage. Gwen, just outside the door, is injured in the explosion and subsequent explosive decompression, but the pilots retain control of the airplane. With all airports east of Chicago unusable due to bad weather, Flight 2 returns to Lincoln for an emergency landing. Due to the bomb damage, Demerest demands the airport's longest runway, Runway 29, which is still closed due to the stuck airliner. Bakersfeld orders the plane to be pushed off the runway by snowplows, despite the costly damage they would do to it. Patroni, who is "taxi-qualified" on 707s, has been trying to move the stuck aircraft in time for Demerest's damaged aircraft to land. By exceeding the 707's engine operating parameters, Patroni frees the stuck jet without damage, allowing Runway 29 to be reopened just in time for the crippled TGA Flight 2 to land. In a brief epilogue, Ada is enjoying her reward of free first-class travel on TGA. But as she arrives at the gate, she laments that it was "much more fun the other way." 

=====

Oliver Barrett IV, the heir of an American upper-class East Coast family, is attending Harvard College where he plays ice hockey. He meets Jennifer "Jenny" Cavilleri, a quick-witted, working-class Radcliffe College student of classical music; they quickly fall in love despite their differences. When Jenny reveals her plans to study in Paris, Oliver is upset that he does not figure in those plans. He proposes, she accepts, and they travel to the Barrett mansion so that she can meet Oliver's parents, who are judgmental and unimpressed with her. Later Oliver's father tells him that he will cut him off financially if he marries Jenny. After graduation Oliver and Jenny marry nonetheless. Without his father's financial support, the couple struggle to pay Oliver's way through Harvard Law School; Jenny works as a teacher. Oliver graduates third in his class and takes a position at a respectable New York City law firm. They are ready to start a family, but fail to conceive. After many tests Oliver is told that Jenny is terminally ill. Oliver attempts to live a "normal life" without telling Jenny of her condition, but she finds out after confronting her doctor. Oliver buys tickets to Paris, but she declines to go, wanting only to spend time with him. To pay for Jenny's cancer therapy, Oliver seeks money from his estranged father, who asks him if he has "gotten a girl in trouble." Oliver simply says yes, and his father writes a check. From her hospital bed, Jenny makes funeral arrangements with her father, then asks for Oliver. She tells him to not blame himself, insisting that he never held her back from music and it was worth it for the love they shared. Jenny's last wish is made when she asks him to embrace her tightly before she dies. As a grief-stricken Oliver leaves the hospital, he sees his father outside, having rushed to New York City from Massachusetts as soon as he heard the news about Jenny and wanting to offer his help. Oliver tells him, "Jenny's dead," and his father says "I'm sorry," to which Oliver responds, "Love Love means never having to say you're sorry", something that Jenny had said to him earlier. Oliver walks back alone to the outdoor ice rink, where Jenny had watched him skate the day she was hospitalized. 

=====

In Marseille, an undercover police detective follows Alain Charnier, who runs the world's largest heroin- smuggling syndicate. The policeman is assassinated by Charnier's hitman, Pierre Nicoli. Charnier plans to smuggle $32 million worth of heroin into the United States by hiding it in the car of his unsuspecting friend, television personality Henri Devereaux, who is traveling to New York City by ship. In New York City, detectives Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle and Buddy "Cloudy" Russo go out for drinks at the Copacabana. Popeye notices Salvatore "Sal" Boca and his young wife, Angie, entertaining mobsters involved in narcotics. They tail the couple and establish a link between the Bocas and lawyer Joel Weinstock, who is part of the narcotics underworld. Popeye learns from an informant that a massive shipment of heroin will arrive in the next two weeks. The detectives convince their supervisor to wiretap the Bocas' phones. Popeye and Cloudy are joined by federal agents Mulderig and Klein. Devereaux's vehicle arrives in New York City. Boca is impatient to make the purchase—reflecting Charnier's desire to return to France as soon as possible—while Weinstock, with more experience in smuggling, urges patience, knowing Boca's phone is tapped and that they are being investigated. Charnier realizes he is being observed. He "makes" Popeye and escapes on a departing subway shuttle at Grand Central Station. To avoid being tailed, he has Boca meet him in Washington D.C., where Boca asks for a delay to avoid the police. Charnier, however, wants to conclude the deal quickly. On the flight back to New York City, Nicoli offers to kill Popeye, but Charnier objects, knowing that Popeye would be replaced by another policeman. Nicoli insists, however, saying they will be back in France before a replacement is assigned. Soon after, Nicoli attempts to shoot Popeye but misses. Popeye chases Nicoli, who boards an elevated train. Popeye commandeers a car and gives chase. Realizing he is being pursued, Nicoli works his way forward through the carriages, shoots a policeman who tries to intervene and hijacks the motorman at gunpoint, forcing him to drive straight through the next station, also shooting the train conductor. The motorman passes out and they are just about to slam into a stationary train when an emergency trackside brake engages, hurling the assassin against a glass window. Popeye arrives to see the killer descending from the platform. When the killer sees Popeye, he turns to run but is shot dead by Popeye. After a lengthy stakeout, Popeye impounds Devereaux's Lincoln Continental Mark III. He and his team take it apart searching for the drugs, but come up empty-handed. Cloudy notes that the vehicle's shipping weight is 120 pounds over its listed manufacturer's weight. They remove the rocker panels and discover the heroin concealed therein. The police restore the car to its original condition and return it to Devereaux, who delivers the Lincoln Continental to Charnier. Charnier drives to an old factory on Wards Island to meet Weinstock and deliver the drugs. After Charnier has the rocker panels removed, Weinstock's chemist tests one of the bags and confirms its quality. Charnier removes the drugs and hides the money, concealing it beneath the rocker panels of another car purchased at an auction of junk cars, which he will take back to France. Charnier and Sal drive off in the Lincoln, but hit a roadblock with a large contingent of police led by Popeye. The police chase the Lincoln back to the factory, where Boca is killed during a shootout while most of the other criminals surrender. Charnier escapes into the warehouse with Popeye and Cloudy in pursuit. Popeye sees a shadowy figure in the distance and opens fire a split-second after shouting a warning, killing Mulderig. Undaunted, Popeye tells Cloudy that he will get Charnier. After reloading his gun, Popeye runs into another room and a single gunshot is heard. Title cards note that Weinstock was indicted but his case dismissed for "lack of proper evidence"; Angie Boca received a suspended sentence for an unspecified misdemeanor; Lou Boca received a reduced sentence; Devereaux served four years in a federal penitentiary for conspiracy; and Charnier was never caught. Popeye and Cloudy were transferred out of the narcotics division and reassigned. 

=====

The film opens in 1904 with Alexei's birth during the Russo-Japanese War. Tsar Nicholas II is warned by his cousin Grand Duke Nicholas and the Prime Minister Count Sergei Witte that the war is futile and costing too many lives. They also tell him there is a rising demand by the Russian people for representative government, health care, voting, and workers' rights, but Nicholas wants to maintain the autocracy. Meanwhile, underground political parties led by Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky have formed. Alexei, the only son of Nicholas II and heir apparent to the throne, is diagnosed with hemophilia, a life-threatening disease. The Tsarina Alexandra, a German princess, is disliked by the Russian imperial court. In 1905, Alexandra befriends Grigori Rasputin, a Siberian peasant passing as a holy man, hoping he will heal Alexei. That same year, factory workers are encouraged by Father Georgy Gapon to take part in a peaceful procession to the Winter Palace to present a petition to the Tsar. However, hundreds of soldiers standing in front of the palace fire into the crowd. Nicholas hears of this, the Bloody Sunday massacre, and while he is horrified by the violence, admits he would never have granted the people's requests. In 1913 the family holidays at the Livadia Palace in the Crimea. Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin has preserved the Russian Empire by addressing some of the people's grievances. He presents Nicholas with police reports about Rasputin's dissolute behaviour, which is damaging the Tsar's reputation. Nicholas dismisses Rasputin from the court. Alexandra demands his return, as she believes only Rasputin can stop the bleeding attacks, but Nicholas stands firm. The 1913 Romanov Tercentenary celebrations occur and a lavish Royal Tour across Imperial Russia ensues, but crowds are thin. Other national festivities and Church celebrations go ahead, but at an event at the Kiev Opera House, Prime Minister Stolypin is assassinated. Nicholas executes the assassins and closes the Duma, allowing police to terrorize many peasants. Alexei falls at the Spała Hunting Lodge, which leads to another bleeding attack. It is presumed he will die. The Tsarina writes to Rasputin, who responds with words of comfort. Alexei recovers and Rasputin returns. When World War I begins, Nicholas orders a full mobilization of the Imperial Russian Army on the German border, prompting Germany to declare war and activate a series of its alliances that escalates the war. In 1915, with the war going badly for Russia, he decides to take personal command of the troops and leaves for the front, taking over from his experienced cousin, Grand Duke Nicholas. Alexandra is left in charge at home and, under Rasputin's influence, makes poor decisions. Nicholas is visited by his mother Dowager Empress Feodorovna, who is critical of his incompetence. She scolds him about neglecting domestic issues and implores him to eliminate Rasputin and send Alexandra to Livadia in the Crimea. Concerned about Rasputin's influence, Grand Duke Dmitri and Prince Felix Yusupov invite Rasputin to a party in December 1916 and eventually murder him despite several unsuccessful attempts. Even with Rasputin dead, Alexandra continues her misrule. The army is ill supplied, and starving and freezing workers revolt in St. Petersburg in March 1917. Nicholas decides to return to Tsarskoye Selo too late and is forced to abdicate in his train. The family with Dr. Botkin and attendants leave Tsarskoye Selo and are exiled by Kerensky to Tobolsk in Siberia in August 1917 after Nicholas is told that none of Russia's Allies, including Nicholas' own cousin George V of the United Kingdom, will grant them sanctuary because of Nicholas' past abuses of power over his people. They live guarded by more decent guards but under less grand conditions. In October 1917, Russia falls to the Bolsheviks (October Revolution). The family is transferred to the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg. Under harsher conditions they are guarded by the cold-blooded Yakov Yurovsky. One of the guards attempts to steal Alexei's gold chain, in the process attacking the child, and Nagorny leaps to his defense. Nagorny is taken away and shot. The family are given a batch of withheld letters from friends and relatives and, except for Alexei, laugh together as they read through them. In the early hours of 17 July 1918, the Bolsheviks awaken the family and Dr. Botkin, telling them they must be transferred again. They are waiting in the cellar, when Yurovsky and his assistants enter the room and open fire. 

=====

Filmmaker Martin "Marty" Di Bergi is creating a documentary that follows the English rock group Spinal Tap on their 1982 United States concert tour to promote their new album Smell the Glove. The band comprises childhood friends David St. Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel on vocals and guitar, bassist Derek Smalls, keyboardist Viv Savage, and drummer Mick Shrimpton. They found early success as the Thamesmen with their single "Gimme Some Money", before changing their name and achieving a minor hit with the flower power anthem "Listen to the Flower People", and finally transitioning to heavy metal. Several of their previous drummers died in strange circumstances: spontaneous human combustion, a "bizarre gardening accident", and choking on someone else's vomit. Segments of Marty's film show David and Nigel to be competent but dimwitted and immature musicians. At one point, Nigel shows Marty a custom-made amplifier that has volume knobs that go up to eleven, believing this would make their output louder. Nigel's amplifier dials that go up to eleven; this scene is the origin of the term up to eleven. Several of the band's tour shows are canceled because of low ticket sales, and major retailers refuse to sell Smell the Glove because of its sexist cover art. Tensions arise between the band and their manager Ian Faith. David's girlfriend Jeanine, a manipulative yoga and astrology devotee, joins the group on tour and participates in band meetings, influencing their costumes and stage presentation. The band's distributor opts to release Smell the Glove with an entirely black cover without consulting the band. Despite their manager convincing the band that it would have a similar appeal to the White Album, the album fails to draw crowds to autograph sessions with the band. Nigel suggests staging a lavish show, and asks Ian to order a Stonehenge megalith. However, Nigel, rushing a sketch on a napkin, mislabels its dimensions; the resulting prop is only 18 inches high, making the group a laughing stock. The group blames Ian, and when David suggests Jeanine should co-manage the group, Ian quits. The tour continues, rescheduled into smaller and smaller venues. Nigel is marginalized by Jeanine and David. At a gig at a United States Air Force base, Nigel is upset by an equipment malfunction and quits mid-performance. At their next gig, in an amphitheater at an amusement park, the band finds their repertoire is severely limited without Nigel, and improvise an experimental "Jazz Odyssey", which is poorly received. At the last show of the tour, David and Derek consider exploring old side projects, such as a musical theatre production about Jack the Ripper. Before they go on stage, Nigel arrives to tell them that their song "Sex Farm" has become a major hit in Japan, and that Ian wants to arrange a tour there. As the band performs, David invites Nigel onstage, reuniting them, which excites everyone but Jeanine. With Ian reinstalled as manager, Spinal Tap performs a series of sold-out shows in Japan, despite the loss of drummer Mick, who explodes onstage. 

=====

Nathaniel Mayweather (Chris Elliott) is a snobbish, self-centered, arrogant, despicable, loathsome virginal man. After graduation, he is invited by his father to sail to Hawaii aboard the Queen Catherine. After annoying the limo driver who is taking him to board the boat, he is forced to walk the rest of the way. Nathaniel makes a wrong turn into a small fishing village where he meets the imbecilic cabin boy/first mate Kenny (Andy Richter). He thinks the ship, The Filthy Whore, is a theme boat. It is not until the next morning that Captain Greybar (Ritch Brinkley) finds Nathaniel in his room and explains that the boat will not return to dry land for three months. Nathaniel unsuccessfully tries to convince each fisherman to set sail to Hawaii, but convinces Kenny into doing so. However, the crew reaches Hell's Bucket, a Bermuda Triangle-like area where weird events occur. The ship is caught in a fierce storm and Kenny is knocked overboard and drowns. Without a cabin boy, Greybar forces Nathaniel to do the chores in return for taking him to Hawaii, as well as teaching him how to become a better, more mature, person. With only one island in the entire area, the crew decide to set sail there. The fishermen decide to give Nathaniel another chore that involves dragging him on a floating raft for a week. Nathaniel has little to eat or drink, begins consuming salt water and suffers extreme sunburn after confusing cooking oil as lotion. He also realizes he might be going insane after sighting Kenny's ghost and seeing a floating cupcake (voiced of Jim Cummings) that spits tobacco. After falling into the water he is saved by a "shark-man." After nine days, Nathaniel is pulled back in and tells what happened. It is revealed by Skunk (Brian Doyle- Murray) and Big Teddy (Brion James) that the shark-man is known as Chocki (Russ Tamblyn), the offspring of a male viking and female shark, who can be trouble because he can like one person one way, but then hate them in the other. Nathaniel spots a beautiful young woman named Trina (Melora Walters) swimming in the ocean. After she is pulled up in a net, Nathaniel becomes smitten with her. Not pleased with another passenger on board, the fishermen decide to strand Trina and Nathaniel on the island they're sailing toward. Finally reaching the island, the crew searches for components to fix their boat. Nathaniel tries to get closer to Trina, who constantly rejects him. Greybar and Skunk suggest to Nathaniel that a woman named Calli (Ann Magnuson) can help build his confidence. After an encounter with blue-skinned, six-armed Calli that results in his first sexual experience, Nathaniel again meets Trina, who becomes attracted to him immediately. Calli's husband Mulligan (Mike Starr), a giant, comes home to find a man's bag. Realizing what Calli has done, Mulligan decides to find her lover and kill him. Nathaniel tries to save everyone by confessing to the giant he's the one who slept with Calli. Mulligan is about to kill Nathaniel with a giant nail clipper when Chocki saves him. Nathaniel then kills Mulligan by choking him with his own belt. Finally reaching Hawaii, Nathaniel offers his newfound companions a job at the hotel where his father is the owner. They refuse because all they know how to do is fish and stink. They tell Nathaniel he's a fancy lad who should stay in Hawaii with his dad where he belongs. Nathaniel and the fishermen part ways, including Trina. His father, William Mayweather (Bob Elliott, Chris Elliott's real-life father), expresses disappointment of his son's actions. Not wanting to live the fancy-lad life, Nathaniel leaves to find Trina, and then both join the crew on The Filthy Whore. 

=====

Miguel Ángel González is a member of one of Caracas' richest families while Estrella is a poor but hard-working beautiful girl who sells newspapers in a corner everyday to earn a living. When they meet, they fall in love and begin a beautiful romance that leads to marriage. However, not everything is rosy for the couple. Miguel Ángel's parents Horacio and Rebecca are opposed to the relationship, and the obsessive passion Santa Ortigoza, Miguel Ángel's ex-girlfriend has over him. Horacio's declining mental health makes him become more and more dangerous, and he hides a secret from the past: many years ago, he murdered Estrella's mother because she rejected him and let her father be blamed for the crime. The secret is revealed once Leonardo Montenegro, Estrella's father, is released from prison and reunited with his daughter. Rebecca, Miguel Ángel's mother, begins to accept his relationship with Estrella once she learns about Horacio's secret and that she was wrong about Estrella being a gold digger, when it was actually Santa who was after their family's money. Later, Horacio kidnaps Estrella and Miguel Ángel's twin boys, and during this time, he has begun loving them like his sons. He shoots himself after a police stand-off when the babies are wrestled away from him while Santa dies after her car is driven off a cliff. 

=====

Super Mario 64 is set in Princess Peach's Castle, which consists of three floors, a basement, a moat, and a courtyard. The area outside the castle is an introductory area in which the player can experiment with gameplay, camera, and movement controls. Scattered throughout the castle are entrances to courses via secret walls and paintings. Super Mario 64 begins with a letter from Princess Peach inviting Mario to come to her castle for a cake she has baked for him.Princess Peach's note: "Dear Mario: Please come to the castle. I've baked a cake for you. Yours truly-- Princess Toadstool, Peach." When he arrives, Mario discovers that Bowser has invaded the castle and imprisoned the princess and her servants within it using the power of the castle's 120 Power Stars. Many of the castle's paintings are portals to other worlds, in which Bowser's minions keep watch over the stars. Mario explores the castle for these portals to enter the worlds and recover the stars. He gains access to more rooms as he recovers more Power Stars, and eventually traverses three different obstacle courses, each leading to its own battle with Bowser. Defeating Bowser the first two times earns Mario a key for opening another level of the castle. After Mario defeats Bowser in the final battle, Peach is released from the stained-glass window above the castle's entrance. Peach rewards Mario by kissing him on the nose and baking the cake that she had promised him.Princess Peach: "Mario! The power of the Stars is restored to the castle... and it's all thanks to you! Thank you, Mario. We have to do something special for you... Listen, everybody, let's bake a delicious cake... for Mario..." 

=====

During his forced residence at a deep underground offensive-warfare complex, X-127 is ordered to push missile firing buttons to begin World War III (which lasts a total of 2 hours and 58 minutes). From that point, humanity's few civilian survivors are situated within a collection of underground shelter complexes on Levels 1 through 5 at various depths from the irradiated surface, while military personnel already occupy the deepest and safest Levels 6 and 7\. It later emerges that the orders given have been wholly automatic due to a launch on warning strategy; the war has taken place as a series of automated electronic responses to an initial accident. X-127 and his fellow shelter inhabitants belatedly learn the criteria that had determined admission to the shelters: civilians were granted only an illusion of protection, while government officials and military personnel were granted significantly more security. Those who were assigned to launch the nuclear missiles, and their support staff, were selected for their ability to behave like machines,Doherty, Trevor J. (2009). Future Hell: Nuclear Fiction in Pursuit of History, Student Pulse, 1(11):5. Retrieved 17 March 2013. yet are counted upon to preserve the human spirit and rebuild the human race. X-127 and his colleagues attempt to carry on human life, but discover that institutions such as marriage and preparations for child-rearing have been hollowed out by conditions and attitudes in the antiseptic underground. Toward the end of the novel, the inhabitants of surviving shelters within collaterally hit neutral nations, the former enemy nation and the unnamed protagonist nation gradually meet their deaths as radioactive surface contamination makes its way down past air filters and into water sources in the ground. As Level 7's safety falls into question, its inhabitants confront their growing isolation, overconfidence in technology, loneliness below a dead world, and the insanity of a society whose momentum toward annihilation exceeded its collective will to live. At last, the inhabitants of "Level 7" are wiped out after a malfunction in their nuclear power pile results in lethal contamination of their erstwhile sanctuary. They are apparently the last human beings on Earth to perish, and X-127 is the very last one at the story's conclusion. The extinction of humanity has taken four months from the time that the missiles were first fired. 

=====

Eddie "Hudson Hawk" Hawkins (Bruce Willis)—"Hudson Hawk" is a nickname for the bracing winds off the Hudson River—is a master catburglar and safe-cracker, attempting to celebrate his first day of parole from prison with a cappuccino. Before he can get it, he is blackmailed by various entities, including his own parole officer, a minor Mafia family headed by the Mario Brothers (not to be confused with the video game characters), and the CIA into doing several dangerous art heists with his singing partner in crime, Tommy "Five-Tone" Messina (Danny Aiello). The holders of the puppet strings turn out to be a "psychotic American corporation", Mayflower Industries, run by husband and wife Darwin (Richard E. Grant) and Minerva Mayflower (Sandra Bernhard) and their blade- slinging butler, Alfred (Donald Burton), who kills Hawk's parole officer. The company, headquartered in the Esposizione Universale Roma, seeks to take over the world by reconstructing La Macchina dell'Oro, a machine purportedly invented by Leonardo da Vinci (Stefano Molinari) that converts lead into gold. A special assembly of crystals needed for the machine to function are hidden in a variety of Leonardo's artworks: the maquette of the Sforza, the Da Vinci Codex, and a scale model of DaVinci's helicopter design. Sister Anna Baragli (Andie MacDowell) is an operative for a secretive Vatican counter-espionage agency, which has arranged with the CIA to assist in the Roman portion of Hawk's mission, though apparently intending all along to foil the robbery at St. Peter's Basilica. Throughout the adventure, Hudson is foiled in attempts to drink a cappuccino. After blowing up an auctioneer to cover up the theft of the Sforza, the Mario Bros. take Hawk away in an ambulance. Hawk sticks syringes into Antony Mario's (Carmine Zozzara) face and falls out of the ambulance on a gurney, and the Marios try to run him down with the ambulance as his gurney speeds along the highway. The brothers are killed when their driver, startled by the array of syringes in Antony's face, crashes the ambulance. Immediately afterwards, Hawk meets CIA head George Kaplan (James Coburn) and his CIA agents—Snickers (Don Harvey), Kit Kat (David Caruso), Almond Joy (Lorraine Toussaint), and Butterfinger (Andrew Bryniarski)—who take him to Darwin and Minerva Mayflower. Hawk successfully steals the Da Vinci Codex from another museum, but later refuses to steal the helicopter design. Tommy Five-Tone fakes his death so they can escape. They are discovered and attacked by the CIA Agents, and Kaplan reveals that he and his agents stole the piece, and unlike Tommy and Hudson, had no problem killing the guards. Hawk and Tommy escape when Snickers and Almond Joy are killed—Snickers by a misfired explosive, Almond Joy in the ensuing blast after being incapacitated by a backfired paralysis dart—and pursue the remaining agents. Kit Kat and Butterfinger take Anna to the castle where the Macchina dell'Oro is being reconstructed. A showdown takes place at the castle between the remaining CIA agents, the Mayflowers, and the team of Hudson, Five-Tone, and Baragli. Kit Kat and Butterfinger are betrayed and killed by Minerva, although Kit Kat frees Baragli before he dies. Tommy fights Darwin and Alfred inside Darwin's speeding limo, and Hudson fights George Kaplan on the roof of the castle. Kaplan topples from the castle and lands on the roof of the limo. Alfred plants a bomb in the limo and escapes with Darwin; Tommy is trapped inside and Kaplan is hanging onto the hood. The bomb detonates as the limo speeds over a cliff. Darwin and Minerva force Hawk to put together the crystal powering the machine, but Hawk intentionally leaves out one small piece. When the Mayflowers activate the machine, it malfunctions and explodes, killing Minerva and Darwin. Hawk battles Alfred, using Alfred's own blades to decapitate him. Hawk and Baragli escape the castle using a da Vinci flying machine and discover Tommy waiting for them at a cafe, having miraculously escaped death through an improbable combination of airbags and a sprinkler system in the limo. With the world saved and the secrets of Da Vinci protected, Hawk finally gets to enjoy a cappuccino. 

=====

The show revolves around a group of children and teenagers who performed in their own rock group, Kids Incorporated. They struggled to deal with issues ranging from crushes to peer pressure to child abuse, while performing regularly at a local former musical club called The P*lace, which was really called The Palace, but the "a" in the sign burned out and was never replaced. The action took place on abstract "stagey" sets and the plots involved many fantasy elements, such as the group meeting a robot (Season 1, Episode 10), a runaway princess (Season 1, Episode 6) and even a wise-cracking bicycle (Season 1, Episode 17). In addition to their performances on stage, the group would break into song when they were off-stage. 

=====

The film follows the plot of the original play, and is the first adaptation to have the complete original text. 

=====

In Denmark, Prince Hamlet finds himself involved in a conspiracy of powerful interests within the royal palace. Cruel uncle Claudius kills his brother and takes the power of the kingdom. After an encounter with the restless ghost of his murdered father, Hamlet feigns madness and plots to take vengeance. 

=====

Upon receiving a restraining order from Randal Graves (Clerks) for selling drugs outside the Quick Stop, Jay and Silent Bob learn from Brodie Bruce (Mallrats) that Bluntman and Chronic, the comic book based on their likenesses, is being adapted by Miramax Films. The pair visit Holden McNeil (Chasing Amy), co-writer of Bluntman and Chronic, and demand royalties from the film, but Holden explains he sold his share of the rights to co-creator Banky Edwards. Seeing the negative reaction the film has received online, the pair set out for Hollywood to prevent the film from tainting their image, or at least to receive the royalties owed them. En route, they befriend an animal liberation group: Justice, Sissy, Missy, Chrissy, and Brent. The organization is a front; Brent is a patsy, who will free animals from a laboratory as a diversion while the girls rob a diamond depository. Jay throws Brent out of the van to get closer to Justice, with whom he is attracted to. Justice is fond of the pair, but reluctantly accepts them as new patsies. While the girls steal the diamonds, Jay and Silent Bob free the animals, taking an orangutan named Suzanne with them. They escape as the police arrive and the van explodes, which they believe has killed the girls. Federal Wildlife Marshal Willenholly (whose name is taken from Land of the Lost characters ) arrives; oblivious to the diamond heist, he claims jurisdiction due to the escaped animals, all of which have been recovered but the orangutan. The officers find footage of a video Sissy recorded of Jay claiming to be "the clit commander", with accompanying literature that "Clit" is an acronym for Coalition for the Liberation of Itinerant Tree-Dwellers. Willenholly declares the crime an act of terrorism and calls for backup to hunt "the two most dangerous men on the planet." Seeking refuge inside a diner, Jay and Silent Bob dress Suzanne as their child. Willenholly, facing the political repercussions of "arresting a gay couple", lets them leave but quickly resumes the chase. The fugitives jump into a sewer system, and Willenholly is tricked into jumping off a dam. Suzanne is abducted by a Hollywood animal acting agency, and Jay and Silent Bob arrive in Hollywood and find themselves in the background of an E! News newscast about their online threat against Miramax. Watching the news, Justice takes the diamonds to Hollywood to set things right. Willenholly also leaves for Hollywood. Chased by studio security and reclaiming Suzanne from the set of Scream 4, Jay and Silent Bob end up in the dressing room of Jason Biggs and James Van Der Beek, the actors playing Bluntman and Chronic. Suzanne beats up the actors, and Jay and Silent Bob assume the roles. Meeting racist director Chaka Luther King, they are forced to fight Mark Hamill, playing the supervillain Cocknocker. Willenholly arrives to capture Jay and Silent Bob, but Justice protects them, admitting the CLIT organization was only a diversion. The other thieves arrive and a climactic final battle ensues. Jay and Silent Bob get their royalties from Banky after Silent Bob informs him he violated their original likeness rights contract by not getting their permission before selling the film rights to Miramax, and could face serious legal troubles, and Justice turns herself and her former team in to Willenholly in exchange for a shorter sentence and freeing Jay and Silent Bob. Jay and Silent Bob spend their royalty money locating everyone who expressed negative opinions on the internet about the movie and their characters, including kids and clergy, and travel to assault them. The scene cuts to the audience leaving the theater, having just watched the Bluntman and Chronic movie, to poor reception. Jay and Silent Bob, with Justice and Willenholly, go across the street to enjoy the after party, featuring a performance from Morris Day and The Time. After the credits, God closes the View Askewniverse book. 

=====

In June 1950, a local neighbourhood drunk Čika Franjo serenades field workers. He sings Mexican songs, out of self-preservation, figuring it's safer for him to steer clear of songs originating from either of the two dominant global superpowers — the United States and Soviet Union — in the current climate of Cold War. Yugoslavia is experiencing a paranoid repressive internal apparatus looking to identify and remove enemies of the state in the wake of the Tito–Stalin Split. The local children, including Malik, climb trees and play around. Malik's mother Sena tells him that his father is on a business trip, while Malik is a chronic sleepwalker. His father, communist functionary Meša, was in fact sent to a labour camp by his own brother-in-law, Sena's brother Zijo, who's an even higher positioned Communist functionary. Meša had made a remark about a political cartoon regarding the Tito–Stalin Split in the Politika newspaper. After a while, Meša's wife and children rejoin him in Zvornik. Malik meets Maša, the daughter of a Russian doctor. He falls in love with her, but last sees her when the ambulance takes her away. At the wedding of his maternal uncle Fahro, Malik witnesses his father's affair with a woman pilot. She later tries to commit suicide by using a toilet's flush cord. Sena reconciles with her brother Zijah, who's been diagnosed with diabetes. 

=====

Jack and Kate, who have been together since college, are at JFK Airport, where Jack is about to leave to take up a twelve-month internship with Barclays in London. Kate fears the separation will be detrimental to their relationship and asks him not to go, but he reassures her, saying their love is strong enough to last, and he flies out. Thirteen years later, Jack is now a bachelor living a carefree life as a Wall Street executive in New York City. At work, he is putting together a multi-billion dollar merger and has ordered an emergency meeting on Christmas Day. In his office, on Christmas Eve, he gets a message to contact Kate, but, even though he remembers her, he dismisses it, apparently uninterested. On his way home, he is in a convenience store when a young man, Cash, enters claiming to have a winning lottery ticket worth $238, but the store clerk refuses him, saying the ticket is a forgery. Cash pulls out a gun and threatens him, so Jack offers to buy the ticket and Cash eventually agrees. Outside, Jack tries to help Cash, to which he responds by asking Jack if anything is missing from his life. Jack says he has everything he needs, whereupon Cash enigmatically remarks that Jack has brought upon himself what is now going to happen, and walks away. A puzzled Jack returns to his penthouse and sleeps. On Christmas Day, Jack wakes up in a suburban New Jersey bedroom with Kate and two children. He rushes out to his condo and office in New York, but both doormen refuse his entrance and do not recognize him. Jack runs out into the street and encounters Cash driving Jack's Ferrari. Although Cash offers to explain what is happening, all he says is a vague reference to "The Organization" and that Jack is getting "a glimpse" that will help him to figure out for himself what it's about. Jack slowly realizes that he is living the kind of life he might have had if he had stayed in the United States with Kate as she had asked. He has a modest family life, where he is a car tire salesman for Kate's father and Kate is a non-profit lawyer. Jack's young daughter, Annie, thinks he is an alien but a friendly one and assists him in fitting into his new life. With a few setbacks, Jack begins to succeed, bonding with his children, falling in love with his wife and working hard at his job. Taking advantage of a chance meeting when his former boss, chairman Peter Lassiter, comes in to have a tire blowout fixed, he impresses him with his business savvy and Lassiter invites him to his office, where Jack worked in his 'other' life. There, after a short interview, Lassiter offers him a position. While he is excited by the potential salary and other perks, Kate argues that they are very happy and they should be thankful for the life they have. Having decided that he now likes this 'other' life, Jack again sees Cash, now a store clerk. He demands to stay in this life, but Cash tells him there is no choice: "a glimpse", by definition, is an impermanent thing. That night, Jack tries to stay awake, but fails and wakes the "next day", Christmas Day, to find himself in his original life. He forgoes closing the acquisition deal to intercept Kate, finding her moving out of a luxury townhouse before flying to Paris. Like Jack, she has focused on her career, and has become a very wealthy corporate lawyer. She had only called him to return a box of his old possessions. He chases after her to the airport and, in an effort to stop her leaving, describes in detail their children and family life he had seen. Intrigued, she eventually agrees to go with him for a coffee. From a distance, they are seen talking inaudibly over their coffees. 

=====

Four Atlanta businessmen, Lewis Medlock, Ed Gentry, Bobby Trippe and Drew Ballinger, decide to canoe down a river in the remote northern Georgia wilderness. Lewis, an experienced outdoorsman, is the leader. Ed is a good friend of Lewis and also a veteran of several trips but lacks Lewis' machismo. Bobby and Drew are novices. While traveling to their launch site, the men (Bobby in particular) are condescending towards the locals, who are unimpressed by the "city boys". At a local gas station Drew engages a young boy in a musical duel ("Dueling Banjos"), with the boy on banjo and Drew on his guitar. Although the duel appears mutual and Drew enjoys it, the boy does not acknowledge him when prompted for a congratulatory handshake. Traveling in pairs, the foursome's two canoes are briefly separated. The occupants of one canoe (Bobby and Ed), land briefly and encounter a pair of mountain men emerging from the woods, one carrying a shotgun and missing two front teeth. Following a verbal altercation, Bobby is forced at gunpoint to strip, his ear twisted to bring him to his hands and knees, and then ordered to "squeal like a pig" before being raped while Ed is bound to a tree and held at gunpoint by the other man. Hearing the commotion, Lewis sneaks up and kills the rapist with an arrow; meanwhile, the other man quickly escapes into the woods. After a brief but hotheaded debate between Lewis and Drew about whether to inform the authorities, the men vote to side with Lewis' recommendation to bury the dead man's body and continue on as if nothing had happened — since Lewis tells them that they will be arrested and that they wouldn't receive a fair trial, as the local jury would be composed of the dead man's friends and relatives; likewise, Bobby doesn't want what had happened to him to be known. The four continue downriver but soon disaster strikes as the canoes reach a dangerous stretch of rapids. As Drew and Ed reach the rapids in the lead canoe, Drew shakes his head and falls into the water. It is unclear why. After Drew's fall into the river, the survivors' canoes collide on the rocks, spilling Lewis, Bobby and Ed into the river. Lewis breaks his femur and the others are washed ashore alongside him. Encouraged by the badly injured Lewis, who believes they are being stalked by the rapist's partner, Ed climbs a nearby rock face in order to dispatch the stalker using his bow, while Bobby stays behind to look after Lewis. Ed reaches the top and hides out until the next morning, when the stalker appears on the top of the cliff with a rifle, looking down into the gorge where Lewis and Bobby are located. Ed clumsily shoots and manages to kill him, accidentally stabbing himself with one of his own spare arrows in the process. The dead man apparently has all his teeth but on closer inspection is revealed to be wearing dentures. Ed and Bobby weigh down the body in the river to ensure it will never be found, and repeat the same with Drew's body, which they encounter downriver. Upon finally reaching the small town of Aintry, they take Lewis to the hospital. The men carefully concoct a cover story for the authorities about Drew's death and disappearance being an accident, lying about their ordeal to Sheriff Bullard in order to escape a possible double murder charge. The sheriff does not believe them, but has no evidence to arrest them and tells the men never to come back. They agree. The trio vow to keep their story of death and survival a secret for the rest of their lives. In the final scene, Ed awakes, startled by a nightmare in which a bloated hand rises from the lake. 

=====

The black sharecropper's family is poor and hungry. The father and his dog, Sounder, go hunting each night, but the hunting is inadequate. The family subsists on fried corn mush, biscuits, and milk gravy until one morning they wake up to the smell of boiling ham. They feast for three days, but finally the sheriff and two of his deputies burst into the cabin and arrest the father for stealing the ham. Sounder chases after them, and one of the deputies shoots him with a shotgun. The arrested man's son goes looking for Sounder but cannot find him. Returning to the scene of the shooting, the boy finds a part of Sounder's ear. While his mother cautions him not to "be all hope", the boy searches for the dog every day for weeks. In the father's absence, the family survives on the money the mother makes by selling cracked walnuts. The boy helps to look after his three younger siblings and experiences the intense loneliness of the cabin. For Christmas, the boy's mother makes a four-layer cake for him to take to his father in jail. When he arrives, the guard treats him rudely. Finally the boy is admitted, and the guard breaks the cake into pieces, saying he suspects it could hide something which could help the boy's father escape. The boy gives the mangled cake to his father anyway and tells him that Sounder might not be dead. Their conversation is strained and difficult. The father tells the boy not to come back to the jail, and he goes home. About two months after the father's arrest, the boy awakes to the sound of faint whining, goes outside, and finds Sounder standing there. The dog can only use three legs, has only one ear and one eye, and no longer barks. The boy and his mother welcome the dog home. Once the family learns that the father was convicted and sentenced to hard labor, the boy resolves to search for his father. During the late fall and winter months over a period of several years, he journeys within and among counties, looking for working convicts, seeking word of his father. He also tries with some success to teach himself to read signs and newspapers. One day he is leaning against a fence, watching a group of convicts at a road camp, trying to make out his father's form, when a guard whacks the boy on the fingers with a piece of iron and tells him to leave. While the boy walks toward the outskirts of town, he sees someone putting a book in a trashcan. It is a large volume of Montaigne, and the boy takes it with him. He finds a school where he tries to wash the blood off his hands. While he is at the pump, the boy meets an old teacher who dresses his wounds and asks what happened to him. The boy tells the teacher about Sounder and his father and, observing the book, the teacher extends an offer to the boy to live with him and learn to read. The boy's mother tells him to go, and he stays with the teacher during the winter, working in the fields in summer. One August day, the boy is at home helping with chores when they see his father walking toward them. One side of his father's body is crippled from being crushed in a quarry. Sounder, who has anticipated the man's return for days, runs out to meet him and barks. Weeks later, the man and his dog go hunting for the first time since the man's return. The man has been waiting until he can invite his son, but now he sees that the boy is tired from fieldwork, and the man further senses that the activity might no longer interest the boy. At dawn, Sounder comes back without his master and, when the boy follows Sounder to the man, he finds him dead. Before leaving to return to school, the boy tells his mother that Sounder will be dead before he can come back for the holiday. Two weeks before Christmas, Sounder crawls under the porch and dies. Despite their deaths, there is a sense of peace and resolution over the family - especially for the boy, who has achieved the thing he most wanted - to learn to read. 

=====

In 1844 in the Swedish province of Småland, the Nilsson family lives in Ljuder Parish, on a small farm in the woods at Korpamoen. The eldest son, Karl Oskar, inherits the farm from his father Nils, after meeting a girl named Kristina Johansdotter, who becomes his bride. She moves to Korpamoen to live with him and his parents. In the following years, Karl Oskar and Kristina start a family, starting with Anna, followed by Johan, Marta and Harald. The family struggles with rock filled fields, poor weather and natural disasters, leaving them with insufficient funds and food. Kristina rebukes Karl oskar for his irreligious attitude. Karl Oskar's daydreaming and bookish younger brother, Robert, tired of being overworked and beaten regularly as an indentured farmhand at a nearby farm, first comes up the idea of emigrating to America. He first asks his friend Arvid, his fellow farmhand, to come with him. Arvid eagerly agrees, but the pair's hopes are dashed when they realize they do not have the money for their passage. Robert confronts Karl Oskar about selling his share of the farm, only to find out that Karl Oskar himself had been considering the idea of emigrating with his family. Despite the potential for a better life, Kristina is unenthusiastic, not wanting to leave her homeland as well as being fearful of risking the lives of their four young children on the ocean. However, the family loses Anna after, hungry and resentful at not being given food, gorges herself on uncooked porridge, damaging her stomach. Devastated by this loss, Kristina agrees to Karl Oskar's plan to emigrate and they begin preparing for the journey. Meanwhile, Kristina's uncle Danjel Andreasson is being persecuted by the dean for rejecting the official religion and giving fundamentalist religious services in his home. This leads to him, his wife Inga Lena, and their four young children being sentenced to exile. After this, Danjel arrives at Korpamoen to join the emigration party. Danjel plans to bring two of his followers to America, Ulrika of Västergöhl, a former prostitute, and her sixteen-year-old daughter Elin. Robert persuades Danjel to hire Arvid and pay his fare to America. Not long afterwards, a friend and neighbor of Karl Oskar, Jonas Petter, also expresses an interest of going with them to escape his unhappy marriage. The night before their departure, Kristina reveals to Karl Oskar that she is pregnant. The party travels south from Korpamoen to the port city of Karlshamn, where they board the wooden brig Charlotta, which is bound for New York City. On board, Karl Oskar and Kristina meet Mans and Fina Kajsa Andersson, an elderly couple heading for the Minnesota Territory, where they plan to settle on their son's farm near a town called Taylor's Falls. After hearing how good the land is there, Karl Oskar and Kristina decide to follow them. During the voyage, Inga Lena and Mans Andersson die of sudden illnesses, which nearly claims Kristina as well. Upon their arrival in New York, Karl Oskar and his party, along with Fina Kajsa, begin the long journey westward to Minnesota, first by train, then by riverboat. On the journey from Sweden, the pious Kristina has been prejudiced against Ulrika for her past immorality, but they reconcile during a stop by the riverboat when one of their children goes missing, only to be found by Ulrika. Not long afterwards, tragedy strikes again when Danjel's infant daughter dies after a brief illness. The party finally arrives at the town of Stillwater and with the help of a friendly Baptist minister they find their way to Fina's son's farm in what is now known as the Chisago Lakes area. After Danjel and Jonas Petter make their claims to fine tracts of farmland, Karl Oskar heads deep into the woods to explore the lands along the shore of lake Ki Chi Saga, now known as Chisago Lake. Upon his arrival, he finds the topsoil to be of excellent quality and makes a claim to the land for himself and Kristina and their family by carving his initials into a tree overlooking the lake. 

=====

Vickie Allessio (Glenda Jackson) is a divorced British mother of two. Steve Blackburn (George Segal) is an American married man who "has never cheated on his wife... in the same town." After sharing a London taxi, Steve invites Vickie to tea, then lunch, then takes Vickie to a hotel room, hoping to have sex. Vickie admits she would like to have uncomplicated sex, but isn't impressed by the setting, wanting somewhere sunny. Steve arranges a trip to Málaga. Steve's wife Gloria turns up just as they are about to go, with Vickie traveling as his "mother." He arranges plane tickets for his wife, children and in-laws, but cancels them all again when his wife remarks it seems rather like a pilgrimage. Once at the airport, Steve bumps into friend Walter Menkes (Paul Sorvino), an American movie producer. Unable to admit that he's with Vickie, Steve spends the flight next to Walter, and Vickie sits elsewhere. On arrival in Málaga, Steve ends up giving the last decent car to Walter to get rid of him. He takes an Italian car with an awkward clutch, which he has trouble driving to Vickie's discomfort and annoyance. At the hotel, they end up struggling up several flights of stairs in order to reach a double room. Once settled, the atmosphere becomes awkward, as both argue over their respective sides during sex. Steve is persuaded to just get on top of her, but turns suddenly and causes a spasm in his back. A doctor is called and Steve is put to sleep, while Vickie sleeps atop the bedding. In the morning, Vickie bumps into an American lady, Patty (K Callan), but declines an invitation to dinner. Steve wakes up to find Vickie sunning herself in a bikini on the balcony. The two finally have sex. Getting dressed after, Steve is disappointed in Vickie's lack of enthusiasm about their sex and becomes angered. During a game of golf, Vickie becomes offended by Steve's need to defeat a local boy, who has placed a bet with him while playing. As the tension mounts between them, Vickie decides to go to dinner with Patty and Steve arranges dinner with Walter. When they arrive separately, Vickie discovers Patty is Walter's wife and the two are forced into an uncomfortable dinner with the couple. Steve becomes offended when Vickie is amused that Steve's daughter is fat and has crooked teeth. After an argument in the bedroom, Steve and Vickie decide to head back to London. Steve decides not to bother reserving any plane tickets because he knows this particular flight is never full, but at the airport the last two tickets have just been sold. Returning to the hotel, they begin to attack each other in the room. Steve grabs Vickie atop the bed, almost ripping her dress off. Suddenly excited, Steve tries to have sex with her, but can't undo his trouser zip. Vickie responds, "My god, my one chance to be raped, and you can't get your bloody trousers off." The two collapse laughing and their relationship blossoms over the remainder of the holiday. Walter and Patty notice their blossoming relationship, and Walter confides to Steve that he had a similar holiday romance. Walter warns that it won't work out, knowing Steve won't be able to leave his wife and kids. Steve decides that he still wants to see Vickie when they get back to London. They get a secret flat together, in a building occupied by "French" prostitutes. Steve and Vickie find opportunities to meet secretly. Steve takes the dog for a walk to go join her, but on returning home forgets the dog. On another occasion he sneaks out during a symphony, then comes back wearing golf socks, claiming his kids must have mixed his stuff up. Gradually, the relationship becomes more complicated. Vickie is going to a lot of effort to be with him. Steve comes around for sex after a baseball game in the park, but must leave in a hurry, not knowing that she has prepared a lavish meal. Vickie, wanting some human companionship, invites her gay co-worker Cecil (Michael Elwyn) to spend the day with her, but he's not available. Steve, feeling guilty for rushing off, gets flowers and takes them back to Vickie, finding her in the kitchen sitting in front of the meal she made. Steve leaves without saying a word. Vickie cancels lunch with him. Steve's co-workers are aware something's going on: secretary Derek (Ian Thompson) asks if he is having a "short lunch or a long lunch". He arranges to meet with her in the evening, despite having a very heavy workload, forgetting that he is attending the theatre with his wife. When his wife then calls demanding to know why he is late for the Harold Pinter play, he tries to call Vickie, but is unable to reach her. Vickie sees Steve and Gloria at the theatre together as she is out shopping for the meal she is cooking. When Steve eventually turns up at their flat, he tells Vickie he has been working late, but she thinks he has been lying to her and confronts him about the theatre. Eventually she breaks down and sits quietly at the table, concerned that she is "beginning to sound like a wife". The next morning Steve sends a telegram to the flat for Vickie, telling her that it is over between them. However, on returning home later he changes his mind, cancels the telegram, and runs out the door. However, Vickie has already been given the telegram and begins packing her belongings to leave. When Steve gets to the flat, having bought food to cook for them, he finds a record playing and Vickie gone. Looking out the window he sees her standing at the bus stop. He bangs on the window to get her attention but she doesn't seem to notice and gives up waiting for a bus. She walks along and hails a taxi, which another man hails down in an echo of Vickie and Steve in the beginning of the film. Vickie asks the man, who is handsome and smiles, if he is married. When he says yes, Vickie walks off and leaves him the taxi. 

=====

On August 22, 1972, first-time crook Sonny Wortzik, his friend Salvatore "Sal" Naturile, and Stevie attempt to rob the First Brooklyn Savings Bank. The plan immediately goes awry when Stevie loses his nerve and flees, and Sonny discovers they have arrived after the daily cash pickup, finding only $1,100 in cash. Sonny takes the bank's traveler's cheques and burns the register in a trash can, but the smoke raises suspicion outside, and the building is surrounded by police. The two panicked robbers take the bank employees hostage. Police Detective Sergeant Eugene Moretti calls the bank and Sonny bluffs that he is prepared to kill the hostages. Sal assures Sonny that he is ready to kill if necessary. A security guard has an asthma attack and Sonny releases him as a display of good faith. Moretti convinces Sonny to step outside. Using the head teller as a shield, Sonny begins a dialogue with Moretti that culminates in his shouting "Attica! Attica!" to invoke the recent Attica Prison riot. The crowd begins cheering for Sonny. Sonny demands a vehicle to drive himself and Sal to the airport so they can board a jet. He also demands for pizzas to be brought for the hostages, and for his wife to be brought to the bank. Sonny's partner, Leon Shermer, arrives and reveals that the robbery was intended to pay for her gender affirming surgery, as she is a trans woman. She divulges that Sonny has children with his estranged wife, Angie. As night sets in, the bank's lights are shut off as FBI Agent Sheldon takes command of the scene. He refuses to give Sonny any more favors, but when the bank manager Mulvaney goes into diabetic shock, Sheldon lets a doctor inside. Sheldon convinces Leon to talk to Sonny on the phone; she reveals that she attempted suicide to escape the abusive Sonny, and was hospitalized at Bellevue Hospital when police found her. Leon turns down Sonny's offer to join him and Sal in their escape. Sonny tells police that Leon had nothing to do with the robbery. Sonny agrees to let Mulvaney leave, but he refuses to leave his employees. The FBI calls Sonny out of the bank to talk to his mother, who unsuccessfully tries to persuade him to give himself up. Back inside, Sonny writes out his will, leaving money from his life insurance to Leon for her surgery and to Angie. When the requested limousine arrives, Sonny checks for hidden weapons or booby traps, and selects Agent Murphy to drive him, Sal, and the remaining hostages to Kennedy Airport. Sonny sits in the front beside Murphy with Sal behind. Murphy repeatedly asks Sal to point his gun at the roof so Sal won't accidentally shoot him. As they wait on the airport tarmac for the plane to taxi into position, Sal releases another hostage, who gives him her rosary beads for his first plane trip. Murphy again reminds Sal to aim his gun away. Sal does, and Sheldon seizes Sonny's weapon, allowing Murphy to pull a revolver hidden in his armrest and shoot Sal in the head. Sonny is immediately arrested, and the hostages are freed. The film ends as Sonny watches Sal's body being taken from the car on a stretcher. On-screen text reveals that Sonny was sentenced to 20 years in prison, Angie and her children subsisted on welfare, and Leon, who changed her name to Elizabeth, was able to have the surgery. 

=====

During the Great Depression in the 1930s, Woody Guthrie is unable to support his family as a sign painter and a local musician in Pampa, Texas, a town badly affected by the drought known as the Dust Bowl period. After hearing great things about California including from those leaving for it and being unable to find work, he joins the migration westward to supposedly greener pastures via boxcar riding and hitchhiking, leaving a note to his wife promising to send for her and their children. Woody discovers the low pay and absence of job security of California's casual labor fruit pickers and joins Ozark Bule in using music to fight for people's rights. He becomes a celebrated folk singer on radio with partners Ozark and Memphis Sue while still campaigning for his causes. He has a romance with Pauline before bringing his wife and three children from Pampa to a comfortable home in California. Woody's refusal to conform to music business practices and his obsession with the hobo campers' causes threaten to break up his family and derail his growing music career. Finally, he goes to New York to campaign through his music. 

=====

Dancer Paula McFadden (Marsha Mason) and her ten- year-old daughter Lucy (Quinn Cummings) live in a Manhattan apartment with her married boyfriend, Tony DeForrest, until one day, he deserts her to go and act in a film in Italy. Before he left and unknown to Paula, Tony subleased the apartment to Elliot Garfield (Richard Dreyfuss), a neurotic but sweet aspiring actor from Chicago, who shows up in the middle of the night expecting to move in. Though Paula is demanding and also neurotic, and makes clear from the start that she doesn't like Elliot, he allows her and Lucy to stay. Paula struggles to get back into shape to resume her career as a dancer. Meanwhile, Elliot has landed the title role in an off-off-Broadway production of Richard III, but the director, Mark (Paul Benedict), wants him to play the character as an exaggerated stereotype of a homosexual, in Mark's words, "the queen who wanted to be king." Reluctantly, Elliot agrees to play the role, despite full knowledge that it may mean the end of his career as an actor. Many theater critics from television stations and newspapers in New York City attend the opening night, and they all savage the production, especially Elliot's performance. The play quickly closes, much to his relief. Despite their frequent clashes and Paula's lack of gratitude for Elliot's help, the two fall in love and sleep together. However, Lucy, although she likes Elliot, sees the affair as a repeat of what happened with Tony. Elliot convinces Paula that he will not be like that and later picks up Lucy from school and takes her on a carriage ride, during which Lucy admits that she likes Elliot, and he admits that he likes her and Paula and will not do anything to hurt them. Elliot gets a job at an improvisational theatre, and is soon seen by a well known film director. He is offered an opportunity for a role in a film that he cannot turn down, the only catch being that the job is in Seattle and Elliot will be gone for four weeks. Paula is informed of this and is scared that Elliot is leaving her, never to return, like all the other men in her life. Later, Elliot calls Paula from the phone booth across the street from the apartment, telling her that the flight was delayed, and at the last minute, Elliot invites Paula to go with him while he is filming the picture and suggests Lucy stay with Paula's mother until they return. Paula declines but is happy because she knows that Elliot's invitation is evidence that he loves her and will come back. Before hanging up, Elliot asks Paula to have his prized guitar restrung, which he had deliberately left at the apartment, and she realizes this as proof that he will indeed return and that he really does love her. 

=====

In the final days of the Italian Campaign of World War II, Hana, a French-Canadian nurse of the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps, gains permission from her unit to move into a bombed-out Italian monastery, to look after a dying, critically burned man who speaks English but cannot remember his name. The patient's only possession is a copy of Herodotus' Histories with notes, pictures and mementos contained inside. They are soon joined by Kip, a Sikh sapper in the British Army posted with his sergeant to clear mines and unexploded bombs in the local area, including one in the monastery where Hana and the English Patient are staying. David Caravaggio, a Canadian Intelligence Corps operative who has no thumbs as a result of torture during a German interrogation, also arrives to stay at the monastery. Caravaggio questions the patient, who gradually reveals his past to him, Hana and Kip through a series of flashbacks. The patient tells Hana and Caravaggio that in the late 1930s he was exploring a region of the Sahara Desert near the Egyptian-Libyan border. He is revealed to be Hungarian cartographer Count László de Almásy, who was mapping the Sahara as part of a Royal Geographical Society archeological and surveying expedition in Egypt and Libya with a group including his good friend, Englishman Peter Madox. Their expedition is joined by a British couple, Geoffrey and Katharine Clifton, who own a new plane and are to contribute to the aerial survey efforts. Almásy is given clues by a local Bedouin man which help the group to discover the location of the Cave of Swimmers, an ancient site of cave paintings in the Gilf Kebir. The group begin to document their find, during which time Almásy falls in love with Katharine. He writes about her in notes folded into his book, which Katharine discovers when Almásy awkwardly accepts her offer of two watercolours she has painted of the cave imagery, and asks her to paste them into the book. The two begin an affair on their return to Cairo, while the group arranges for more detailed archaeological surveys of the cave and the surrounding area. Almásy buys a silver thimble in the market as a gift to Katharine. Some months later, Katharine abruptly ends their affair from fear her husband Geoffrey will discover it. Shortly afterwards the archaeological projects are halted due to the onset of the war. Madox leaves his Tiger Moth aeroplane at Kufra Oasis before his intended return to Britain. Over the days while Almásy relates his story, Hana and Kip begin a shy love affair, but Kip is reposted once he has cleared the area of explosives. They agree they will meet again. While Almásy is packing up the base camp at the cave site, Geoffrey, in an attempted murder-suicide having apparently long known about the affair between Almásy and Katharine, deliberately crashes his own Boeing- Stearman plane, narrowly missing Almásy. Geoffrey is killed instantly and Katharine is seriously injured. Almásy carries her to the Cave of Swimmers, realising she is wearing the thimble he gave to her on a chain around her neck. She confesses that she has always loved him despite ending their affair. After leaving her with provisions and his book, Almásy begins a three-day walk across the desert to get help. At British-held El Tag he attempts to explain the situation, but on revealing his name, is detained on suspicion of being a German spy and transported on a train. He escapes from the train, and soon afterwards comes in contact with a German army unit. They transport him to Madox's sequestered plane at Kufra Oasis, where he exchanges its stored survey maps for fuel, enabling him to fly back to the cave. However, he finds that Katharine has since died. He carries Katharine's body from the cave to the Tiger Moth and takes off. This finally connects the story to the scenes at the start of the film, where the plane is shot down by German anti-aircraft guns; Almásy is badly burned, but he is rescued by a group of Bedouin, who bring him to the Siwa Oasis, from where he is moved to Italy. After he has related his story, Almásy indicates to Hana that he wishes to die, pushing several unopened vials of morphine towards her as she gives him his regular injection for pain relief. Though visibly upset, she grants his wishes for a compassionate death and, as he dies, she reads him Katharine's final letter, which Katharine wrote to Almásy in his book while she was alone in the cave. Hana and Caravaggio leave the monastery for Florence with a passing truck, and she hugs Almásy's book to herself as she rides away. 

=====

The film follows Kaspar Hauser, who has lived the first seventeen years of his life chained in a tiny cellar with only a toy horse to occupy his time, devoid of all human contact except for a man, wearing a black overcoat and top hat, who fed him. One day, in 1828, the same man takes Hauser out of his cell, teaches him a few phrases, and how to walk, before leaving him in the town of Nuremberg. Hauser becomes the subject of much curiosity, and is exhibited in a circus before being rescued by Professor Georg Friedrich Daumer, who patiently attempts to transform him. Hauser soon learns to read and write, and develops unorthodox approaches to logic and religion; but music is what pleases him most. He attracts the attention of academics, clergy and nobility. He is then physically attacked by the same unknown man who brought him to Nuremberg. The attack leaves him unconscious with a bleeding head. He recovers, but is again mysteriously attacked; this time, stabbed in the chest. Hauser rests in bed describing visions he has had of nomadic Berbers in the Sahara Desert, and then dies. An autopsy reveals an enlarged liver and cerebellum. 

=====

In the summer of 1964, in Erie, Pennsylvania, Guy Patterson, an aspiring jazz drummer, is working in his family's appliance store when he is asked by acquaintances Jimmy Mattingly and Lenny Haise to sit in with their new pop-rock band at a local talent show after their regular drummer Chad is injured. The band adopts the name "The Oneders" (pronounced "wonders", but often mispronounced "oh-NEE-ders") because Jimmy likes names that contain wordplay, like The Beatles. At the talent show, Guy launches into a faster tempo than Jimmy intended for his original song, "That Thing You Do". Jimmy is upset, but Guy's version wins them the talent show. The Oneders' performance at the talent show earns them a paying gig at Villapiano's, a local pizza place. When an earnest fan asks for a record, they decide to record the song and sell 45s of it, with the help of Guy's uncle, a church music producer. Local talent promoter Phil Horace takes notice of the band and promises to get their record played on the radio within 10 days. Although Jimmy is apprehensive, Lenny convinces the band to sign with Phil. Guy's girlfriend, Tina, who tacitly supported him at first, dumps him after falling for her handsome dentist. Phil gets the song on Pennsylvania radio and books the band at a rock & roll showcase concert in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They encounter technical difficulties, however, and are booed by the crowd. After the showcase, Phil brings a dispirited Guy to meet with Mr. White, an A&R; representative for Playtone Records, who offers the band a contract and takes over as their manager. Mr. White re-spells the band's name as "The Wonders," offers them advice on style and presentation (including insisting that Guy should always wear sunglasses), asks them to join the Play-Tone tour of Midwestern state fairs, and suggests that Jimmy's girlfriend Faye join the tour as their "costume mistress." The Wonders' bassist says that he has enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and will need to leave the band by the end of the summer, but Mr. White says he can still tour before then. During the tour, The Wonders meet other acts, learn about the business, and become better performers. Jimmy spends time with a chanteuse while the bassist falls for a member of a girl group. "That Thing You Do" garners national radio airplay and the band's popularity soars. While most of the band enjoys their taste of fame, Jimmy isn't content just to tour and is itching to get back in the studio. "That Thing You Do" reaches #7 on the Billboard charts. Mr. White takes the band off the tour and sends them to Los Angeles, California to do publicity there, including radio and film appearances. Faye is almost left behind when a frenzied crowd makes it nearly impossible for the group to get to their car, but Guy insists on going back for her. He also nurses Faye on the flight to L.A. when she is not feeling well. Jimmy seems not to notice his girlfriend's troubles or her new closeness to Guy. Jimmy is increasingly frustrated with Mr. White's management and is desperate to cut another record. The other band members, however, take advantage of L.A.'s attractions. The bassist meets some active Marines and goes to Disneyland with them. Lenny starts dating a record company secretary and planning a trip to Vegas with her. Guy visits a jazz club and meets his idol, jazz pianist Del Paxton. On the day of the band's appearance on The Hollywood Television Showcase, a nationally televised live variety show, things start to go awry. The bassist is nowhere to be found, so Mr. White replaces him with an older, experienced session bassist known as "Wolfman". Guy is hungover; Jimmy is throwing up due to nerves; Lenny is preoccupied with his new girlfriend. Still, the Wonders manage to pull it together for their high-profile television appearance. When television captions introduce the members of the band, Jimmy's caption reads "Careful, girls, he's engaged!" After the performance, Jimmy lashes out at Faye in the dressing room, insinuating that she was responsible for the "engaged" caption (although White implies that it was his doing). Jimmy insists that they are not engaged and he has no intention of proposing. Heartbroken and weary, Faye calls Jimmy out and breaks up with him. Jimmy yells after her that he should have dumped her in Pittsburgh, to which Guy meaningfully replies, "Why *didn't* you dump her in Pittsburgh?" The next day, at a scheduled recording session, the original bassist is still missing and so is Lenny. Mr. White has provided new material for Jimmy and Guy to record, but Jimmy wants to do his original songs. When Mr. White reminds him that the terms of their contract allow Play-Tone to dictate their material, Jimmy quits the band on the spot. Guy is now the only remaining Wonder. Mr. White assures him that such things are common in the music industry and compliments Guy on his smarts and integrity. Lingering in the studio since its time is already paid for, Guy plays a swinging, jazzy drum routine of his. Del Paxton hears him and is impressed enough to invite him to have an impromptu jam session. He tells Guy that he has the chops to make it as a drummer in L.A. Guy returns to the hotel to get his things and check out. The bellhop informs him that Jimmy has checked out, but Faye is alone in the coffee shop. Guy tells Faye he plans to stay in L.A., while she says she will go back to Erie. Before leaving, she hugs him and tells him that none of this would have happened if he hadn't joined the band—and that that's a good thing. She goes out to the curb to call a cab. After watching her for a few seconds, Guy chases after her and kisses her. They leave their things with the bellhop and walk back into the hotel. An epilogue reveals that Jimmy went back to Play-Tone and formed another hit- making band, the Heardsmen (a name Jimmy tinkered with before joining the Wonders), then had a successful career as a record producer; Lenny became a divorced hotel and casino manager in Nevada; the bassist earned a Purple Heart for injuries suffered at Khe Sanh in Vietnam, then began a career in construction in Orlando, Florida; and Guy and Faye are married with four children in Venice, California, before moving to Bainbridge Island in Washington, where Guy teaches jazz composition at a music conservatory that they founded. 

=====

The novel is set in an era in which interstellar travel is in the process of being discovered and perfected. In Chapter 2, the novel states that the year 2220 was 16 years ago. Accordingly, the bulk of the novel takes place in or around the year 2236. Before the novel's opening, "hyper-assistance", a technology allowing travel at a little slower than the speed of light, is used to move a reclusive space station colony called Rotor from the vicinity of Earth to the newly discovered red dwarf Nemesis. There, it takes up orbit around the semi-habitable moon Erythro, named for the red light that falls on it. It is eventually discovered that the bacterial life on Erythro forms a collective organism that possesses a form of consciousness and telepathy (a concept similar to the Gaia of Asimov's Foundation series). While the colonists argue over the direction of future colonization—down to Erythro, or up to the asteroid belts of Nemesis system—events catch up with them. Back on Earth superluminal flight is perfected, ending Rotor Colony's isolation and opening the galaxy to human exploration. The story also relates the breakup and reunion of a family. The mother, who discovered Nemesis, and her daughter were separated from the Earthbound father when the colony departed. The father then becomes part of the hyperjump research project as a result. Important in the novel is the startling discovery that the bacterial inhabitants of Erythro collectively constitute a sentient and telepathic organism and the discovery and resolution of a massive crisis: Nemesis' trajectory threatens to gravitationally destabilize the Solar System. 

=====

Tucker Case (Tuck), is a pilot for a cosmetics company, who crashes the company plane while having sex. This event causes Tuck to be blacklisted from flying in the United States, so he accepts a lucrative offer from a doctor-missionary on a remote Micronesian island to transport cargo to and from the island and Japan. Tuck moves to the island with a Filipino trans woman navigator and a talking fruit bat. There Tuck eventually uncovers a horrible secret harbored by the doctor and his wife, who capitalized on the fact that the island natives are under the influence of a cargo cult that developed as a result of establishment by Allies of an air runway there during World War II. 

=====

Pine Cove suffers a major crisis when the town psychiatrist, Val Riordan -- who has been haphazardly issuing prescriptions instead of dealing with the real mental problems of her patients -- suffers a sudden bout of guilt and substitutes all of her patients' anti- depressants with placebos. At this same time, by coincidence, human-generated environmental activity stirs a prehistoric sea-beast from its underwater keep to come ashore. In addition to its ability to change form, the beast exudes a pheromone that inspires uncontrollable lust among the residents of Pine Cove and also lures some of them as prey. After mistakenly trying to mate with a fuel truck (causing an explosion), the beast hides in a trailer park, attracting the curiosity of local crazy lady and former B-movie star Molly Michon, who builds a rapport with the injured beast. Meanwhile, Theophilus Crowe, the town constable, investigates a strange suicide, the activities of his corrupt boss, and his adversely affected marijuana habit. When the beast (whom Molly has named "Steve") starts eating residents of Pine Cove and interfering with Theo's boss's methamphetamine business, Molly (who has become romantically involved with the beast) and Theo band together to make possible the beast's safe escape and to take down the boss at the same time. 

=====

Generals Miki and Washizu are samurai commanders and friends under Lord Tsuzuki, a local lord, who reigns in the castle of the Spider's Web Forest. After defeating the lord's enemies in battle, they return to Tsuzuki's castle. On their way through the thick forest surrounding the castle, they meet a spirit, who foretells their future. The spirit tells them that today Washizu will be named Lord of the Northern Garrison and Miki will become commander of the first fortress. She then foretells that Washizu eventually will become Lord of Spider's Web Castle, and finally she tells Miki that his son will become lord of the castle. When the two return to Tsuzuki's estate, he rewards them with exactly what the spirit had predicted. As Washizu discusses this with Asaji, his wife, she manipulates him into making the second part of the prophecy come true by murdering Tsuzuki when he visits. Washizu kills Tsuzuki with the help of his wife, who gives drugged sake to the lord's guards, causing them to fall asleep. When Washizu returns in shock at his deed, Asaji grabs the bloody spear and puts it in the hands of one of the three unconscious guards. She then yells "murder" through the courtyard, and Washizu slays the guard before he has a chance to plead his innocence. Tsuzuki's vengeful son Kunimaru and Noriyasu, an advisor to Tsuzuki, both suspect Washizu as the traitor and try to warn Miki, who refuses to believe what they are saying about his friend. Under Asaji's influence, Washizu is unsure of Miki's loyalty, but chooses Miki's son as his heir because he and Asaji have no child of their own. Washizu plans to tell Miki and his son about his decision at a grand banquet. However, Asaji tells him that she is pregnant, which leaves him with a quandary concerning his heir; now Miki and his son have to be eliminated. During the banquet, Washizu clearly is agitated by the non-appearance of Miki and his son, and drinks sake copiously. He loses his self-control when Miki's pale ghost suddenly appears. In a delusional panic, he reveals what has happened to Miki by exclaiming that he is willing to slay Miki for a second time, going so far as unsheathing his sword and striking over Miki's mat. Asaji, attempting to pick up the pieces of Washizu's blunder, tells the guests that he is only drunk and that they must retire for the evening. One of his men arrives and presents the severed head of Miki, and tells them that Miki's son escaped. Washizu is horrified by his own betrayal of his best friend, and kills the assassin. Later, Washizu is distraught upon hearing that his child and heir is stillborn and so Miki's murder was unnecessary. In dire need of help with the impending battle with his foes, he returns to the forest to summon the spirit. She tells him that he will not be defeated in battle unless the very trees of Spider's Web Forest rise against the castle. Washizu believes this is impossible and becomes confident of his victory. Washizu knows he must kill all his enemies, so he tells his troops of the last prophecy, and they share his confidence. The next morning, Washizu is awakened by the screams of attendants. Striding into his wife's quarters, he finds Asaji in a semi-catatonic state, trying to wash clean the imaginary foul stench of blood from her hands, obviously distraught at her grave misdeeds. Distracted by the sound of his troops moving outside the room, he investigates, and he is told by a panicked soldier that the trees of Spider's Web Forest "have risen to attack us". The prophecy has come true, and Washizu is doomed. As Washizu tries to get his troops to attack, they remain still. Disillusioned with his increasingly unstable leadership, the troops finally accuse Washizu of the murder of Tsuzuki. For his treachery, and to appease Miki's son and Noriyasu, they turn on their master and begin firing arrows at him. Washizu finally succumbs when one of the arrows leaves a mortal wound just as his enemies approach the castle gates. It is revealed that the attacking force is using trees cut during the previous night to disguise and protect themselves in their advance on the castle. 

=====

Joe Pendleton, a backup quarterback for the American football team Los Angeles Rams, is looking forward to leading his team to the Super Bowl. While riding his bicycle through the older west side of tunnel one on Kanan-Dume Road in Malibu, California, an over-anxious guardian angel (known only as The Escort) on his first assignment sees Joe heading into the tunnel, and a large truck heading into the other end of the tunnel towards Joe and his bicycle. The Escort plucks Joe out of his body early in the mistaken belief that Joe was about to be killed. Pendleton immediately arrives in the afterlife. Once there, he refuses to believe that his time was up, and upon investigation, the mysterious Mr. Jordan discovers that he is right: Joe was not destined to die until much later (10:17 am on March 20, 2025 to be exact). Unfortunately, his body has been cremated, so a new body must be found for him. After rejecting several possibilities of men who are about to die, Joe is persuaded to accept the body of a millionaire industrialist. Leo Farnsworth has just been drugged and drowned in his bathtub by his cheating wife Julia Farnsworth and her lover Tony Abbott, Farnsworth's personal secretary. Julia and Tony are confused when Leo reappears alive and well. Leo's domestic staff are confused by the changes in some of his habits and tastes. Still obsessed with his football destiny, Leo buys the Rams to lead them to the Super Bowl as their quarterback. To succeed, he must first convince, and then secure the help of longtime friend and trainer Max Corkle to get his new body in shape. At the same time, he falls in love with Betty Logan, an environmental activist, whom he met when she came to his doorstep to protest the original Farnsworth's corporate policies. With the Rams about to play in the Super Bowl, all the characters face a crisis. Mr. Jordan informs Farnsworth that he must give up this body as well. Farnsworth resists, but hints to Betty that she might someday meet someone else and should think of him. Julia and Abbott continue their murderous plans, and Abbott shoots Farnsworth dead. The Rams are forced to start Tom Jarrett, another quarterback in the climactic game. A detective, Lieutenant Krim, interrogates the suspects while they watch the game on television. With the help of Corkle, he gets Julia and Abbott to incriminate each other. After a brutal hit on the field, Jarrett is killed. With Mr. Jordan's help, Joe then occupies his final body. He is shown snapping to life in Jarrett's body, then leading the Rams to victory. During the team's post-game celebration, Corkle finds Joe and asks “Is it you?” And hugs him. As Joe is being interviewed on TV, Mr. Jordan tells him that to live as Tom Jarrett, he will have to lose the memories of his life as Joe Pendleton. As Mr. Jordan disappears, Tom/Joe seems disoriented. Corkle goes to find Joe later, and Is crestfallen to realize that Joe has “left” Tom. Jarrett bumps into Betty while leaving the stadium. They strike up a conversation, and each appears to recognize the other but they don’t know how. The lights go out in the stadium as they’re leaving, and Tom says something that reminds Betty of Farnsworth/Joe. This echoes earlier in the film when Joe had asked Betty to watch for and recognize something/someone in a stranger she might meet one day. Tom asks her to go with him for coffee and she accepts. 

=====

On October 6, 1970, on holiday in Istanbul, Turkey, American college student Billy Hayes straps 2 kg of hashish blocks to his chest. While attempting to board a plane back to the United States with his girlfriend, Billy is arrested by Turkish police on high alert for fear of terrorist attacks. He is strip-searched, photographed, and questioned. After a while, a shadowy American – who is never named but is nicknamed "Tex" by Billy, for his thick Texan accent – arrives, takes Billy to a police station, and translates Billy's English for one of the detectives. Billy says that he bought the hashish from a taxicab driver and offers to help the police track him down in exchange for his release. Billy goes with the police to a nearby market and points out the cab driver, but when they go to arrest the cabbie, it becomes apparent that the police have no intention of keeping their end of the deal with Billy. He sees an opportunity and makes a run for it, only to get cornered and recaptured by the mysterious American. During his first night in holding at a local jail, a freezing-cold Billy sneaks out of his cell and steals a blanket. Later that night, he is rousted from his cell and brutally beaten by chief guard Hamidou for the theft. A few days later, Billy wakes up in Sağmalcılar Prison, surrounded by fellow Western prisoners Jimmy (an American who is in for stealing two candlesticks from a mosque), Max (an English heroin addict), and Erich (a Swede, also in for drug smuggling), who help him to his feet. Jimmy tells Billy that the prison is a dangerous place for foreigners like them and that no one can be trusted, not even young children. Billy meets his father, along with a US representative and a Turkish lawyer, to discuss what will happen to him. Billy is sent to trial for his case, during which the angry prosecutor makes a case against him for drug smuggling. The lead judge is sympathetic to Billy and gives him only a four-year sentence for drug possession. Billy and his father are horrified at the outcome, but their Turkish lawyer insists that it is a very good result. Jimmy tries to encourage Billy to become part of an escape attempt through the prison's tunnels. Believing that he is to be released soon, Billy rebuffs Jimmy, who goes on to attempt an escape himself. Caught, he is brutally beaten. Then, in 1974, Billy finds out 53 days before he is due for release, that his sentence has been overturned by the Turkish High Court in Ankara after an appeal by the prosecution. The prosecutor originally wished to have him found guilty of smuggling and not the lesser charge of possession. Billy is shocked to find out that he now has to serve 30 years for his crime. In desperation, Billy goes along with a prison break that Jimmy has masterminded. Along with Jimmy and Max, he tries to escape through the catacombs below the prison, but their plans are revealed to the prison authorities by fellow prisoner Rifki. His stay becomes harsh and brutal: terrifying scenes of physical and mental torture follow one another, and Billy has a breakdown. He brutally beats Rifki, killing him, and shortly thereafter bites out Rifki's tongue. He is sent to the prison's ward for the insane, where he wanders in a daze among the other disturbed and catatonic prisoners. In 1975, Billy's girlfriend, Susan, comes to see him. Devastated at what has happened to Billy, she tells him that he has to escape or he will die in there. She leaves him a scrapbook with money hidden inside as "a picture of your good friend Mr. Franklin from the bank" in the hope that Billy can use it to help him escape. Her visit moves Billy strongly, and he regains his senses. Billy says goodbye to Max, telling him not to die and promising to come back for him. He then tries to bribe Hamidou into taking him where there are no guards, but Hamidou takes Billy to another room and physically assaults him. Hamidou prepares to rape Billy and they struggle until suddenly and inadvertently Hamidou is killed after being pushed into the wall, his head impaled upon a coat hook. Here, Billy seizes the opportunity to escape by putting on a guard's uniform and walking out of the front door. In the epilogue, it is explained that on the night of October 4, 1975, Billy successfully crossed the border to Greece and arrived home three weeks later. 

=====

The perfect life of wealthy New York City wife Erica Benton (Jill Clayburgh) is shattered when her stockbroker husband Martin (Michael Murphy) leaves her for a younger woman. The film documents Erica's attempts at being single again, where she suffers confusion, sadness, and rage. As her life progresses, she begins to bond with several friends and finds herself inspired and even happier by her renewed liberation. The story also touches on the overall sexual liberation of the 1970s. Erica eventually finds love with a rugged, yet sensitive British artist (Alan Bates). 

=====

Ted Kramer (Dustin Hoffman) is a workaholic advertising executive who has just been assigned a new and very important account. Ted arrives home and shares the good news with his wife Joanna (Meryl Streep) only to find that she is leaving him. She leaves Ted to raise their son Billy (Justin Henry) by himself. Ted and Billy initially resent one another as Ted no longer has time to carry his increased workload, and Billy misses his mother's love and attention. After months of unrest, Ted and Billy learn to cope and gradually bond as father and son. Ted befriends his neighbor Margaret (Jane Alexander), who had initially counseled Joanna to leave Ted if she was that unhappy. Margaret is a fellow single parent, and she and Ted become kindred spirits. One day, as the two sit in the park watching their children play, Billy accidentally falls off the jungle gym, severely cutting his face. Ted sprints several blocks through oncoming traffic carrying Billy to the hospital, where he comforts his son during treatment. 15 months after she walked out, Joanna returns to New York to claim Billy, and a custody battle ensues. During the custody hearing, both Ted and Joanna are unprepared for the brutal character assassinations that their lawyers unleash on the other. Margaret is forced to testify that she had advised an unhappy Joanna to leave Ted, though she also attempts to tell Joanna on the stand that her husband has profoundly changed. Eventually, the damaging facts that Ted was fired because of his conflicting parental responsibilities which forced him to take a lower-paying job come out in court, as do the details of Billy's accident. His original salary was noted as "$33,000 a year", whereas he was forced to admit that his new salary was only "$28,200", after Joanna has told the court that her "present salary" as a sportswear designer is "$31,000 a year". The court awards custody to Joanna, a decision mostly based on the tender years doctrine. Devastated with the decision, Ted discusses appealing the case, but his lawyer warns that Billy himself would have to take the stand in the resulting trial. Ted cannot bear the thought of submitting his child to such an ordeal, and decides not to contest custody. On the morning that Billy is to move in with Joanna, Ted and Billy make breakfast together, mirroring the meal that Ted tried to cook the first morning after Joanna left. They share a tender hug, knowing that this is their last daily breakfast together. Joanna calls on the intercom, asking Ted to come down to the lobby alone. When he arrives she tells Ted how much she loves and wants Billy, but she knows that his true home is with Ted, and therefore will not take custody of him. She asks Ted if she can go up and see Billy, and Ted says that would be fine. As they are about to enter the elevator together, Ted tells Joanna that he will stay downstairs to allow Joanna to see Billy in private. After she enters the elevator, Joanna wipes tears from her face and asks her former husband "How do I look?" As the elevator doors start to close on Joanna, Ted answers, "Terrific." 

=====

Dave, Mike, Cyril, and Moocher are working-class friends living in the college town of Bloomington, Indiana. Now turning 19, they all graduated from high school the year before and are not sure what to do with their lives. They spend much of their time together swimming in an old abandoned water-filled quarry. They sometimes clash with the more affluent Indiana University students in their hometown, who habitually refer to them as "cutters", a derogatory term for locals related to the local Indiana limestone industry and the stonecutters who worked the quarries. (The term "cutters" was invented for the movie, because the real name "stoners” was deemed unusable because of its perceived link to marijuana.) Dave is obsessed with competitive bicycle racing, and Italian racers in particular, because he recently won a Masi bicycle. His down-to-earth father Ray, a former stonecutter who now operates his own used car business (sometimes unethically), is puzzled and exasperated by his son's love of Italian music and culture, which Dave associates with cycling. However, his mother Evelyn is more understanding and prepares Italian dishes for him. Dave develops a crush on a university student named Katherine and masquerades as an Italian exchange student in order to romance her. One evening, he serenades "Caterina" outside her sorority house by singing Friedrich von Flotow's aria "M' Apparì Tutt' Amor", with Cyril providing guitar accompaniment. When her boyfriend Rod finds out, he and some of his fraternity brothers beat Cyril up, mistaking him for Dave. Though Cyril wants no trouble, Mike insists on tracking down Rod and starting a brawl. The university president (real-life then President Dr. John W. Ryan) reprimands the students for their arrogance toward the "cutters" and, over their objections, invites the latter to participate in the annual Indiana University Little 500 race. When a professional Italian cycling team comes to town for a race, Dave is thrilled to be competing with them. However, the Italians become irked when Dave is able to keep up with them. One of them jams a tire pump in Dave's wheel, causing him to crash, which leaves him disillusioned. He subsequently confesses his deception to Katherine, who is heartbroken. Dave's friends persuade him to join them in forming a cycling team for the Little 500. Dave's parents provide T-shirts with the name "Cutters" on them. Ray privately tells his son how, when he was a young stonecutter, he was proud to help provide the material to construct the university, yet he never felt comfortable on campus. Later, Dave runs into Katherine, who is leaving for a job in Chicago; they patch things up. Dave is so much better than the other competitors in the Little 500 that, while the college teams switch cyclists every few laps, he rides without a break and builds up a big lead. However, he is injured in a crash and has to stop. After some hesitation, Moocher, Cyril, and Mike take turns pedaling, but soon the Cutters' lead vanishes. Finally Dave has them tape his feet to the pedals and starts to make up lost ground; he overtakes Rod, the current rider for the favored fraternity team, on the last lap and wins. Ray is proud of his son's accomplishment and takes to riding a bicycle himself. Dave later enrolls at the university, where he meets a pretty French student. Soon, he is extolling to her the virtues of the Tour de France and French cyclists. 

=====

Juliet Forrest, the daughter of noted scientist and cheesemaker John Hay Forrest, asks private investigator Rigby Reardon to investigate her father's death, which she believes to have been murdered. Searching Dr. Forrest's lab Rigby finds two lists, one titled "Friends of Carlotta" (FOC) and the other "Enemies of Carlotta" (EOC), as well as an affectionately autographed photo of singer Kitty Collins, whose name appears on one of the lists. His search is interrupted by a man posing as an exterminator, who shoots Rigby in the arm and takes the lists from the seemingly dead investigator. Rigby manages to find his way to Juliet's house, where she sucks out the bullet, snakebite- style, and points Rigby to the club at which Kitty sings. Juliet also reveals a note to her father from her alcoholic brother-in-law, Sam Hastings, which in turn reveals that Dr. Forrest gave him a dollar bill "for safekeeping". Despite warnings that the mentally disturbed Leona will not be of much use, Rigby calls Leona, who after a rambling discussion, hangs up. On the way out, Juliet asks Rigby to leave further news with her butler or cleaning woman. Mention of the latter causes Rigby to go berserk due to his own father running off with the cleaning woman and his mother dying of a broken heart. Rigby tracks down alcoholic Sam and gets Dr. Forrest's dollar, which has "FOC" names scrawled on it — including Kitty Collins and her boyfriend Swede Anderson. Rigby tracks down Kitty Collins at a nightclub, asking her if she's one of Carlotta's friends, which causes her to leave abruptly. He trails her to a restaurant, where she ditches her brooch into her soup. Rigby subsequently retrieves the brooch, which contains an "EOC" list, on which all names are crossed out, except Swede Anderson's. Rigby visits Swede but while Rigby prepares his famous "java", Swede is killed. Rigby is also shot, in the same arm as last time, causing Juliet to suck out another bullet. Rigby calls his mentor Philip Marlowe for assistance. Juliet hands over a key from Dr. Forrest's desk, a key to a train station locker 1936, and asks him to call with any progress. Marlowe meanwhile, picks up the EOC list to check against any unsolved murders. Rigby goes to the train station to collect the contents of locker 1936, which contains more lists. He finds F.X. Huberman, whose name he found on one of the lists and who turns out to be a "classy dame with bedroom eyes," throwing a party. She flirts with Rigby, then drugs his drink and steals the locker key. Rigby regains consciousness after crawling back to his office, where Juliet finds him. She informs Rigby that Sam Hastings has died falling out of a window reaching for a bottle of whiskey. She also has a reference for him from her father's office. The reference is to an article in The New York Times about a South American cruise ship called Immer Essen (German for always eating) on whose last voyage Sam Hastings was a passenger. When Marlowe calls, Rigby questions him about Walter Neff, the ship's owner, and learns that Neff cruises supermarkets looking for blondes. Juliet offers to dye her hair to serve as bait, but Rigby is protective of her as more than a client. He tries to recruit several of his former associates without success, and instead disguises himself as a blonde and meets Neff. Rigby drugs him and finds documents about the Immer Essen, including a passenger manifest identical to an EOC list, and articles about the ship's imprisoned captain, Cody Jarrett, who refuses to talk to anyone about it but his mother. Rigby then dresses up as Jarrett's mother to visit Jarrett in prison without arousing the prison guards' suspicion. He tries to win Jarrett's confidence by explaining the Friends of Carlotta are after him. Rigby doesn't learn anything from Jarrett though, so he cashes in a favor with the warden to act as a prisoner for a few days. Jarrett turns out to be a Friend of Carlotta after all, kidnaps Rigby during a breakout, and shoots him while he's still in the trunk of the getaway car. After sucking out a third bullet, Juliet leaves for the drugstore for medicine. On her way out, a call comes in from an old flame. Juliet overhears parts of it on an extension in the next room, and thinking Rigby is two-timing her, calls Rigby from a pay phone and closes the case. While Rigby is drinking, thinking himself betrayed by Juliet, Marlowe calls and tips Rigby off that Carlotta is an island off Peru. At a cafe, Rigby finds Kitty Collins there. Carlos Rodriguez, a local policeman from Rigby's gun- running past, warns Rigby of the locals, including Kitty's new boyfriend, Rice. The next day, one of the characters Rodriguez warned Rigby of approaches him and tries to bribe Rigby into leaving the island. Kitty drops by Reardon's room. Carlos calls to tell him Rice is in town with a group of Germans when the telephone line is cut. Kitty then drugs Rigby's drink, causing him to pass out. He wakes up to see Rice trying to suffocate him. After exchanging shots and chasing through the "Fiesta de Carlotta" fireworks celebration, Rigby shoots Rice and frisks the corpse for instructions leading him to a hideout where he finds Juliet, her father (actually still alive), and her butler, who introduces himself as Field Marshal Wilfried von Kluck. Rigby and the Field Marshal compete about the right to explain what happened by interrupting each other's monologue. It turns out that Dr. Forrest had been tricked into divulging a secret cheese mold by Nazis posing as a humanitarian organization. Once he discovered their true intent, to use the mold's corrosive properties to destroy America with strategically placed cheese bombs and make a comeback, he assembled a list of Nazi agents, the "Friends of Carlotta." Before he could divulge the names to the FBI, he was abducted and his death faked to prevent a police investigation. The Immer Essen, a cruise ship passing by, witnessed the corrosive effects of the mold tests, making all passengers "Enemies of Carlotta" and targets for murder. Rigby is captured but Juliet gets the Field Marshal to say "cleaning woman," causing Rigby to go berserk, break his chains and overpower the Nazis. While Juliet gets Rodriguez, the Field Marshal manages to pull one of the switches, destroying Terre Haute, Indiana, before being shot dead by Rigby. Rodriguez rounds up the other Nazis while Rigby shares a long kiss with Juliet. 

=====

A man dressed in a U.S. Air Force flight suit finds himself alone on a dirt road, with no memory of who he is or how he got there. He finds a diner and walks in to find a jukebox playing loudly; he lowers the volume and continues to call out. Eventually, he heads into the kitchen where he finds a hot pot of coffee on the stove and freshly made pies, but there are no other people besides himself. He accidentally knocks over and breaks a clock, at which point the jukebox stops playing. The man leaves the diner and walks to a nearby town; he sees a parked truck with an apparent female passenger, but 'she' turns out to be a mannequin. Like the diner, the rest of the town seems deserted, but the man feels he is being watched and that there is someone around. The phone rings in a telephone booth and he dashes to answer it. There is nobody on the line and he can only raise a recorded message when he tried to call the operator. He grows unsettled as he wanders through the empty town, increasingly anxious to find someone to talk to. Inside the police station, he uses the radio ("Calling all cars, calling all cars, unknown man walking around police station..."); then he notices a lit cigar in an ashtray. This prods him to check the jail cells in back. In one cell, there is evidence that someone had recently been there shaving. He declares that he wants to "wake up now". The man makes his way to the soda shop where, as he makes himself a sundae, he considers this dream he must be having and marvels at how detailed it is. He sees an entire rack of paperback books titled The Last Man on Earth, Feb. 1959. This spooks him and he quickly leaves. As night falls, lights turn on and the man is drawn to the illuminated movie theater marquee. The advertised film is Battle Hymn and this causes him to remember that he is in the Air Force. He runs inside shouting, "I'm in the Air Force." Inside the theater he sits down to ponder this discovery and what could have happened that resulted in his being in this situation. When the film suddenly begins onscreen, he sprints to the projection booth and finds nobody there, then becomes even more paranoid that he is being watched. Panicked, he runs downstairs and headfirst into a wall-length mirror. When he recovers from this shock, he gives in to terror and races through the streets, stumbling, falling and startled by everything. He comes upon a pedestrian call button and desperately pushes it over and over, begging for help. The call button is revealed to be a panic button: the man, whose name is given as Sgt. Mike Ferris, is actually in an isolation booth being observed by a group of uniformed servicemen. He has been undergoing tests to determine his fitness as an astronaut and whether he can handle a prolonged trip to the Moon alone; the town was a hallucination caused by sensory deprivation. The officiating general warns Ferris that while his basic needs will be provided for in space travel, he will not have companionship: "next time [he will] really be alone". As Ferris is carried from the hangar on a stretcher, he looks into the sky and tells the Moon, "don't go away up there" and, "we'll be up there in a little while". 

=====

Lew Bookman is a kindly sidewalk pitchman who sells and repairs toys, notions, and trinkets, and is adored by the neighborhood children. One day, Bookman is visited by Mr. Death, who tells him that he is to die at midnight of natural causes. Unable to dissuade Death by convincing him he has great achievements in the works that must be completed, Bookman eventually convinces him to wait until he has made his greatest sales pitch: "one for the angels". After Death has agreed to the extension and asks when this grand pitch might take place, Bookman announces he is retiring, smug that he has successfully cheated Death. Death concedes Bookman has found a loophole in their agreement, but warns that someone else now has to die in his place. Death chooses Maggie, a little girl who lives in Bookman's apartment building and is a friend of his. Maggie is hit by a truck and falls into a coma; Death intends to be in her room at the stroke of midnight to claim her. Bookman begs Death to take him instead, but Death is adamant; a deal is a deal. Bookman gets out his wares and begins to eloquently boost one item after another, making the greatest sales pitch of his life—one so great that he entices Death himself. Death buys item after item and does not remember his appointment with Maggie until it is past midnight, when he has already missed it. Maggie awakens and, as her doctor leaves the apartment and sees Bookman, he assures him that Maggie will live. Death observes that by making that great sales pitch, Bookman has met the original terms of their deal. Now content and willing to accept his fate, Bookman leaves for Heaven with Death; he brings his case of wares with him, remarking that "you never know who might need something up there". He looks to Death, adding hopefully, "Up there?" and Death replies, "Up there, Mr. Bookman. You made it." 

=====

